Welcome To Nightmare
by Alucard1563
Summary: After the death of her longtime boyfriend a girl named Allison is spirited away to Halloween Town where she must try and survive the things trying to hunt her down and steal her soul.
1. Down the Treehole

Allison woke in a cold sweat with her tears still freshly on her face. She took in a shaky breath before another flood of tears fell from her eyes. It had been that dream again, the same dream she'd had for the past month. _I can't even escape it in my dreams_, she thought grimly. It had been a month since her long time boyfriend, Alex, had died in a car crash. She had always assumed it was her fault, that if he hadn't been driving to see her then he would still be alive.

Her dreams had been plagued with macabre re-creations of the crash that had claimed Alex's life. Each time it seemed darker and more gruesome. She shuddered as the image of his lifeless body in it's casket at the funeral came into her mind and even more tears began to fall. Time hadn't even begun to dull the pain and it seemed to her like it grew with each passing day. After a while she finally managed to cry herself back into a light sleep.

As the sun started to pour into her window she awoke. She sat up in bed and pushed her auburn hair out of her face before taking a deep breath and sliding out of bed. It was Saturday and she wouldn't have the distraction of school until Monday, she sighed at the prospect. It meant having to find something to do to keep her mind off…. She stopped her process quickly. _Jesus_, she thought, _it's already starting_.

She looked longingly at the picture frame on her bedside table. The picture had been taken outside the local movie theater; it was where her and Alex had gone on their first few dates. This particular picture had been on their third date. The movie had been terrible and Allison had hurt her ankle getting out of the theater. On top of that it had been cold and damp outside, but Alex still insisted on taking a picture. Allison always thought that her hair looked terrible and that she had smiled weird, but Alex had insisted on keeping it. Then she looked over to his side of the photo. His brown hair was an attractive mess, his brown eyes held that look of lazy satisfaction (_and love. Always love_, she thought), but what always stopped her in her tracks was his smile. He was always smiling. When he was happy, sad, content, in pain, always. It was one of the things she loved about him. He was an optimist through and through. She smiled and turned to leave the room. For some reason that was the only picture of him that she could look at without crying. She closed the door behind her and walked downstairs.

It was still early, which explained why the house was quiet. Otherwise her parents and younger brothers would have been up having breakfast. Her family had treated her like a leper ever since Alex's death. They avoided making eye contact with her and on the occasions they did talk to her they were always short concise sentences. It wasn't bad enough that she had lost her boyfriend, but now her family too?

She grabbed an apple off the table and walked out the back door. She closed it behind her and made sure it was locked. She took a bite out of the apple, more to hear the sound of it rather than the fact that she was hungry. The morning air was too quiet, even the birds seemed to be far off in the distance. Allison shivered against the autumn wind and reached for the dog tags around her neck. Alex had given them to her back when they first started dating and she had never let them get too far from her ever since. Autumn had been Alex's favorite time of year. She fought back the lump in her throat and started walking. She figured that a walk in the woods would help clear her head. It always had in the past.

She had always liked the woods, it was a place of peace and order and fall had brought out a beautiful array of leaves. The leaves crunched under her shoes as Allison walked in between the trees. For so long she had been afraid of the woods behind her house, but after Alex had taken her walking through them she had become steadily more at ease with them. Now they were almost like an old friend that could commiserate with her. She took a deep breath and let the cool air fill her lungs taking in the smells around her. Nature had always been beautiful to her; it had just taken a little push to get her out into it. She took another bite of the apple and kept walking.

Thoughts of her and Alex flashed through her mind as she walked. So much had happened in these woods. Their first kiss behind an old pine tree, the stump where they had been when he first told her he loved her. She chuckled as she walked past the tree he had fallen out of while trying to show off. She could still remember the scene like it was yesterday.

"Babe get down your gonna hurt yourself!" she called.

Alex just chuckled and climbed higher on another branch. "You're kidding right, I'm a pro at this."

Allison shook her head. "Babe I'm asking nicely, please?" she pleaded.

Alex laughed harder then. "What, do you think I'm gonna fall or…" before he could say the next word the branch in front of him broke and he lost his footing.

He fell down and hit the ground hard and just lay there for a moment. Allison was about to run over and check on him until he started laughing.

"Owww." He moaned still laughing.

"Well babe I warned you didn't I?" Allison chuckled leaning down to kiss him on the mouth.

Allison felt a tug around her neck and felt the dog tags snap open and fall to the ground. She quickly turned and saw them slid into a pair of bushes and she quickly dove in after it. She wasn't going to lose those dog tags no matter what.

She pushed the bushes aside and climbed through searching the ground for them. She finally came out the other side and looked around. She was in a part of the woods that she and Alex had never explored. Allison slowly stood up and saw the dog tags lying in the center of a clearing surrounded by a circle of trees.

"Now how the hell did you get over there?" she asked walking towards them.

She stopped in the middle of the clearing and picked of the dog tags and making sure they were safely back around her neck. Luckily they had only popped out and nothing had broken. She breathed a sigh of relief. She was about to head back home when she noticed that all of the trees had a pattern.

The one in front of her had a large painted Easter Egg on it, another had a large bight green Christmas tree, but the one that really got her attention was the one with a large Pumpkin on it. All of the doors had shiny gold knobs like a door handle. She walked over to the pumpkin on and wrapped her hand around the knob. Allison tried to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. She sighed, Halloween had been Alex's favorite time of year and the door reminded her strongly of Halloween.

She shrugged and turned to leave when she heard the door open behind her. Before she could turn she felt a thick vine like object wrap around her waist. She looked down and saw that it was pure black. Another one wrapped around her arms and she was swept off her feet and into the door. She saw with horror as it shut behind her and then everything went black.


	2. Rough Awakening

Allison moaned as the throbbing in her head slowly started to die down as she returned to consciousness.

"Do you think she's dead?" a voice asked.

"How should I know check and see if she's breathing idiot." Another voice said.

Allison slowly opened her eyes and blinked several times trying to get her Barings. She was lying on a patch of dirt in a very bleak and dark forest. There where trees around here, but all of them were dead and looked as if they had been that way for a long time. She then took notice of the three figures standing in front of her. They were no more than children she could tell, and all three of them were wearing masks. Allison cleared her throat and tried to speak but could only manage to croak out an unintelligent grunt. She shook her head as the three children began laughing hysterically.

"Well I guess she's alive!" the middle one cackled out between her laughter.

She was the taller of the two and her mask was a plain white. Dark scraggly hair could be seen out sneaking out from under her large witch's hat. The other didn't respond, but instead just kept laughing. Allison tried to clear her voice again and this time managed to get words out.

"W-who are you?" she asked.

The three of them looked at each other before turning back to her.

"Lock!" Said the first child in pure red clothing with a devilish looking mask.

"Shock!" Said the girl in the middle with the witch's hat.

"And Barrel!" said the last portly one in skeleton clothing with an awkwardly round mask.

Allison couldn't help but laugh. As disoriented and scared as she was the whole routine they had just done was easily enough to make her crack up.

"That's cute." She said chuckling and wiping a tear out of her eye.

The children looked indignant through their masks.

"What did you just call us?" Shock asked fuming.

Allison smiled. "I called you cute, that whole little thing you just did was adorable." She said, "Oh and those outfits are just the cutest things, did your mom make those for you?"

The three of them looked outraged.

"Do you know who we are?" Shock asked in anger.

Allison chuckled again. "Like you said, you're Clock, Shock, and Barrel." She said.

"It's Lock!" Lock said angrily, "My name is Lock not clock!"

Allison laughed again. "Well my utmost apologies Lock." She said.

Allison rose to her feet slowly and looked down at the children. "So, where exactly am I?" she asked looking around.

"You're in the woods stupid!" Lock said turning back towards the others. The three of them huddled together and started whispering in tones that Allison couldn't hear. After a few moments the three of them turned back to her.

"How about you come back to our place?" Shock said.

"Yeah, we'll take real good care of you." Barrel said.

Allison looked at them for a second trying to gauge their facial expressions through their masks. At last she finally shook her head and gave a weak smile. Something wasn't right about these kids, she could feel it now.

"Umm, no thanks. I need to be getting back home now." She said weakly.

The three of them chuckled and hurried behind her and started pushing her. "Oh come now, we insist." Shock crooned.

"Yeah, we insist." Barrel agreed.

Allison tried to break free of their grips, but she couldn't free herself from their iron clasp. They finally managed to push her to the ground and Lock grabbed a rope that had been lying on the ground not too far away while the other two held her down with strength that they shouldn't have been able to possess. She squirmed and tried to break free as the three of them cackled and wrapped the rope tightly around her. As they lifted her off the ground Allison began to scream and tried to twist away from them. A shrill whistle erupted from Lock's lip and a large bathtub walked out into the clearing in the woods. That was when it registered in Allison's mind. The bathtub had _walked_. _Oh god_, she thought to herself, _where the hell am I_? They tossed her into the bathtub like a sack of potatoes and she hit her head hard on the side and let out a cry of pain.

"Oh shut up will ya?" Lock complained as she started screaming again. "Barrel, get the gag so she'll be quiet!"

Barrel nodded and reached inside the tub and grabbed a cloth and was about to tie it around her mouth when a call split the air.

"Let her go now!" the voice said. It was commanding and Allison could feel the raw power behind it.

Lock, Shock, and Barrel all turned as one to face the sound of the voice.

"Hey, no fair," Barrel complained, "We found her first she's ours!"

"Yeah Zel," Lock agreed, "You can't just take her from us.

There was a growl from the unknown speaker. "I can and I will if you get in my way, now untie her and get out of here before I decided that I'm tired of your meddling." There was something eerily familiar about the sound of the voice, but Allison couldn't place it.

"And what if we decide to say no, huh?" Shock asked, "What then?"

Allison heard the sound of metal sliding against metal and she knew that the figure had drawn a sword. _What the hell is this guy doing with a sword and who is he_, she asked herself. "Then I'll gut all three of you and turn you into stockings for Jack's next Christmas escapade." The figure growled.

Lock, Shock, and Barrel grumbled and finally reached into the tub and pulled Allison out before dropping her on the ground hard and hurriedly climbing into the bathtub cackling as it hurried off into the night. Allison cringed as she tasted dirt and blood mixing together in her mouth. She was laying facedown in the dirt and she couldn't see anything. She could only wait helplessly as she heard the stranger's footsteps get closer. He didn't hurry and show any sign of speeding up, he simply walked at a slow leisurely pace. Finally she was turned over and was staring face to face with another mask. This one was a gold and black mixture with a black bat emblem stretched across it. The only thing she could see of the figure's face was the figures eyes, which were a brilliant shade of brown. It held the sword a few inches from her face and she flinched back from the gleaming steel. Before she could blink again it had flicked across her and the ropes fell to the ground in a cut heap. She took a deep breath and slowly sat up as the figure slid it's sword back into the sheath that hung on his hip. It took Allison a second before she could talk.

"Y-you're not with them?" she asked finally. The figure shook it's head and sighed.

"No," he said (for Allison could now clearly tell the voice was male) "those three have been a thorn in my side for a long time now. You'd better come with me if you don't want something worse to find you."

"Can I at least know the name of the man that saved me?" Allison asked.

The man shrugged. "I suppose," He said, "my name is Zel. And I don't believe I caught yours."

Allison nodded committing the name to memory. "My name is Allison." She said.

Zel nodded and started walking away. Not wanting to be left behind Allison quickly followed behind him. They walked in silence for a few more minutes before she finally broke it. "Umm, can you tell me where exactly I am?" she asked.

Zel sighed, "I was hoping you wouldn't ask that yet," he said a little annoyed, "I can't explain it to you right now. I'll leave that to Jack, but I will tell you this. You're not in your world anymore, so stick close otherwise thing might get very bad oka…." Zel stopped in mid-sentence and clutched his sword hilt.

"Shit!" he snarled, "it's already found us. I didn't think it would zero in on us that quickly."

Allison looked at him worriedly. "That what would zero in on us that quickly? Zel what's going on?" she asked.

Zel shook his head and pulled his sword out. "Just shut up and stay down, things are about to get very dangerous so stay close, but don't get in my way understood?"

Allison didn't have time to answer as a group of shadows slid out of the darkness and surrounded them. All of the figures were tall and had no features other than the red slits were there eyes were. They didn't seem to be tangible as they floated just inches above the ground. All of them looked like the shadows of some very large and very scary creature that Allison couldn't identify. She looked over at Zel and saw that his eyes were flicking back and forth between the shadows circling them. It only took a split second for them to all close in. Zel struck out with explosive speed and cut down three of the shadows faster than Allison had ever seen anything move in her life, but he was soon overwhelmed. One of the large shadows used the pack of it's massive hand and sent Zel flying towards one of the trees. He crashed against it, but before he could hit the ground one of the shadows appeared right next to him and grabbed him by the throat before slamming him to the ground. He elegant mask cracked in half and the left side fell away revealing his face. Allison gasped and felt herself get chills all over. As the shadow figure flung him to the ground next to her she found herself staring face-to-face with an exact copy of her boyfriend, his hair was longer and he now had blood on his face from the collision, but she knew it was Alex's face. Zel slowly staggered to his feet clutching his sword and using it to keep himself standing. The shadows circled in and slowly started to close in. Zel let out a pained breath and brought his sword up to bear on shaking legs. He held it ready to be on the defense for the first shadow that tried to attack. The one directly in front of him looked like it was about to attack before a voice echoed through the trees. "Get away from my town!"

Allison turned towards the sound of the voice and saw a tall and slender scarecrow looking figure. It had a pumpkin were its head was with a steady stream of flame coming from it's eyes and mouth, a tattered violet long sleeve shirt and straw leggings. The hands were one fire and the shadows seems to cower at the sight of it. The figure leapt forward in a graceful leap and landed in the middle of the shadows right next to Zel. With a flick of his hand a ball of fire flew from his right hand and engulfed one of the shadows in a ball of light. He fired two more before the shadows got the hint and retreated out of sight.

Zel staggered and fell to his knees. "It's about time you got here Jack, I was just entertaining our guest." He said weakly.

The figure turned towards Allison and with it's slender hands took the pumpkin off it's head to reveal a skull. "Well hello there!" the skeleton said cheerfully. Allison laughed weakly and fell to the ground unconscious.


	3. A Safe Haven?

Allison stirred into semi-consciousness. Her body told her that she was awake, but her mind refused to work. She knew that she was lying on a bed, which meant she had been moved. But where had she been moved from?

"Was it something I said?" a voice asked.

Allison recognized the voice as belonging to that skeleton that had saved her and… the memories came flooding back in an instant. Her eyes flew open and she bolted upright in the bed.

"Alex!" she cried.

The skeleton, who had been facing the opposite direction, jumped in fright.

"Jack she's awake now." A soft voice said from next to Allison.

She looked at the chair sitting next to the bed and saw a woman sitting there. She had a dull red hair and it looked as if her body parts had all been stitched together, but her kind warm smile instantly put Allison at ease.

"It would seem she is!" the skeleton said cheerfully. "You startled me young lady" he said, "and let me tell you that's not an easy thing to do."

Allison noticed that the skeleton had changed out of the scarecrow outfit and was now in black pinstriped clothing. She gripped her head suddenly and fell back on the bed uttering a tiny cry of pain as a massive headache washed over her.

"Oh no, not again!" the skeleton said worriedly as he headed for the bed.

Allison put out a hand and waved him away. "No, it's fine I just have a terrible headache." She said.

The skeleton sighed in relief. "Oh good," he said, "I thought I scared you again."

Allison shook her head and sat up slowly. "No, no it's fine," she said, "Umm, would you mind telling me where I am Mr…?"

The skeleton looked as if he had just been slapped. "I knew I was forgetting something. Forgive me for being so rude. My name is Jack Skellington." He said making a small bow. "And in the chair there is my lovely wife Sally." Sally smiled again and Allison swore she could smell rose petals. She nodded and committed the names to memory.

"Well I'm Allison." She said.

"It's a pleasure Allison." Jack said "And you my dear are in our lovely Halloween Town."

Allison blinked a few times trying to figure out if he was serious. "Th- that's the name of your town?" she asked a little confused.

Jack nodded proudly. "Yes, our town here used to be such a lively place until those _things_ showed up." He said looking menacingly out the window of the room. "I believe you met the shadows that have been terrorizing us for the past few months."

Allison nodded as her mind clicked back to Alex, or Zel, or whatever his name was. The last time she had seen him he was barely standing and looked to be on the verge of falling apart while protecting her from those things. "Wait Zel, is he okay?" she asked panicked.

Jack nodded and gave a weak smile. "Yes he's fine," he said although there was a tone of worry in his voice, "luckily I got there just in time. If he had to fight those things again they would have ripped him apart…literally."

Allison shivered as the mental image of the Alex look-alike being torn limb from limb by those shadow creatures. She sighed and rubbed her head as the headache slowly started to dull.

"We can take you to see him if you want, he's right downstairs and Sally can grab you something for that headache of yours if you feel strong enough to walk." Jack said offering her a boney hand.

Allison took it without hesitation. Earlier that day she would have fled just at the sight of him, but now she felt a determination to see Zel no matter what. She stood up and wobbled on her legs for a moment before regaining her balance and following Jack out of the room. Sally went to the left and off into a room further down the hall, while she followed Jack down a winding staircase. As they reached the bottom she heard a pair of voices.

"You really should be more careful my boy," the first voice said, "You're not invincible and I don't know how many times I can keep putting you back together without doing permanent damage to you."

"I need to be stronger Doc," the second one said. Allison recognized this one as Zel. "How am I supposed to protect this town when I can hardly handle myself? I'm faster than this I know it, but my body just won't work fast enough. Isn't there something you can do to make it so that I can operate at my full potential?"

"That's a dangerous question child, but I'll look into my research and see what I can find." The other voice said, "If I were you though I would give up this childish game and simply go with an escort. Why in the name of all things Halloween would I have made those machines if they can't do their job?"

"Listen you don't understand Doc, these things they just can't keep up with those shadows. He's got us by the balls and Jack refuses to…" Zell tried to say before Jack abruptly stormed in and interrupted him.

"But that I refuse to do what Zel?" Jack asked harshly. Zel grunted and looked down at the ground for a moment. Allison looked over next to him and saw a small figure in an automatic wheelchair. He wore dark glasses over his eyes and his jaw was awkwardly extended and she could see the rows of sharp teeth inside it. He shrugged and pushed the lever on his wheelchair and brought it over to Jack.

"Well he seems to be doing okay; all of his vitals seem to be doing well for now. I outfitted him with a new mask and some new bones to replace the ones he broke." The thing said. Allison looked over at Zel and noticed that the mask that had once covered his whole face had been replaced with one that only covered the left side of his face.

"Thank you Doctor Finkelstein, that will be all for now. You can return to whatever it is you were doing and I'll get the two of them out of your hair." Jack said. Finkelstein nodded and rode out of the room.

Zel looked up from the table he was sitting on and flexed his right hand a few times before looking back up at Jack. He snarled when he saw Allison. "Why did you bring _her_ here?" he asked. Allison couldn't help but feel her heart crack at the sight of such a look on the face of someone who so closely resembled her dear Alex.

Jack responded with a snarl of his own. "Because she is a guest in our town and _you_ would do well to remember your manners." Zel sighed and looked back down at the floor. "I understand that you're angry that you lost," Jack continued, "But that is no reason to be ugly to those around you. Not after all we've done for you."

Zel shook his head slowly and stood up and walked over to Jack. "You're right, I'm sorry." He said now calmed down, "It's just that I hate being weaker than those things, how am I supposed to protect this Town if I can't even protect myself?"

Jack put a hand on Zel's shoulder. "You're not weaker than them, they simply had you outnumbered. It could have happened to any of us."

Zel grunted, "But not you though Jack, they're afraid of you. There's nothing else they're afraid of but you." He said, "It doesn't matter how much he wants them to fight, they won't if you're there."

Jack nodded. "Yes, we're aware of that. We'll talk about this later in _private." _He said nodding his head toward Allison. Zel nodded in agreement. "But for now we need to focus on getting her out of here. She can't stay here much longer, she doesn't belong." Allison was about to protest, but thought better of it. Maybe it was better that she went back home. This was a dangerous place and she had seen it firsthand. She followed Jack and Zel outside into the crisp air. It had the feel of autumn, but without a sun in the sky it was hard to tell. She looked up and saw a thick covering of clouds and shivered pleasantly as a breeze washed over her. The Town was designed to have a feel of Halloween in mind. All of the building and sculptures had an obvious air of Halloween. _I guess he wasn't joking after all_, she thought to herself. She was about to take a step when a clown barreled past her on a unicycle. It cackled as she jumped back and yelped. She caught her breath and shook her head as she looked around and saw more of the town's residents walking around. Werewolfs, ghosts, vampires, all walking around doing various things.

"Holy shit," she whispered to herself, "I guess I'm not in Kansas anymore."

"What was that?" Jack asked as he walked up to her.

"Oh, nothing." She lied, "I was just a little startled that's all."

Jack chuckled. "Well that's our job here in Halloween Town, we scare people."

Allison chuckled nervously. "So it would seem."

Jack started walking first and Allison quickly followed behind not wanting to get left behind. Zel was on their heels bringing up the rear. As they walked Jack was hailed by everyone they passed as was Zel. It was obvious that the two of them were somewhat of superstars in the town. Allison just kept her head down and tried not to make too much of a scene.

"Try not to let them get to you; they're all very nice people once you get to know them." Zel whispered in her ear. She shivered. It was exactly like when Alex used to do that. There were too many similarities to make sense to her. She simply nodded and gave him a weak smile which he didn't return. She shrugged. _He may look like Alex_, she thought, _but he surely doesn't act like him_.

She took a few more steps before a headache washed over her again. She stopped in her tracks and gripped her head. Jack turned at the sound of her discomfort and looked worried. "Zel, go get Sally quickly. She has medicine I'm sure." He said. Zel nodded without a word and sped off back towards Dr. Finkelstein's house. Allison felt like her head was trying to tear itself in half.

_Oh yes, you'll do marvelously my dear_, a voice echoed in her head. _I knew I had chosen correctly. Now it's only a matter of time until you come to me my sweet little morsel_.

More pain shot through Allison's head and she cried out in pain. "Sally hurry!" Jack called.

Allison felt all of her muscles cramp up as the pain spread throughout the rest of her body as a faint laughter echoed through her mind. She felt dizzy and her whole world started to go black and her legs gave out from under her. Right before she lost consciousness she felt Zel catch her in his lap as he slid to the ground. The last thing she saw before everything went black was his face and thought, _Alex_.

. . .

Lock, Shock, and Barrel climbed out of their tub and hurried inside the cage that served as an elevator. They all bickered with each other even as the cage rose towards their house.

"Why couldn't we have just taken her with us anyway?" Barrel asked.

"Why do you think idiot?" Shock answered, "Zel would have taken her from us."

"If we had all worked together though there's no way he could have won." Lock argued, "It would have been three on one. I don't care how fast he is, he couldn't win."

"You're an idiot; do you really think we could have won?" Shock asked, "He would have tossed us aside like a bunch of ragdolls. You've seen him work."

"Maybe," Lock said, "But we could have at least tried and done something. It's no fun for us to just run away like that!"

The elevator reached the house and they all exited.

"What good would it do for us to get beaten up though I mean…" Barrel tried to say before he was cut off.

"Oh for the love of God would you all just shut up, I could hear you all the way up here!" a female voice screamed. They all quickly shut up and hurried into the room where the voice had come from. The house had changed a lot ever since Oogie Boogie had been gone. It was now brighter and more illustrious. A long dark rug stretched across the room and stopped in front of a large chair that acted as a throne. All three of them stopped at the foot of the rug and didn't move. "Well I thought you said there was something out there?" the voice said.

"Well, we ran into a bit of a problem." Lock mumbled.

"Why must you always mumble, Shock what did he say?" the voice grumbled.

Shock piped up and gave Lock a small smack on the back of the head. "He said we ran into a problem when we were out there."

The voice chuckled. "And what was it this time that you found?" she said only mildly amused.

"We found a human!" Barrel burst out. Both Lock and Shock gave him looks that could have curdled milk.

The owner of the voice simply stood there for a moment flabbergasted. "Y-you found a human?" she asked. "And you let someone stop you from bringing it back here!" she yelled.

"It was Zel's fault he got in the way!" Shock shouted over the panicking shouts of the boys.

The voice fell silent again and stood up walking over to them. Her bare feet tapped the floor with almost no sound. She had a dark black dress that drifted slightly over her toes and she had a tangled mess of close cut red hair that fell to her mid neck. Her blue eyes peered out from underneath one of the bangs hanging in her face. The only thing that scarred her otherwise gorgeous feature were the small bunny ears that were barely visible outside her hair.

"Ms. Bunni, are you angry with us?" Lock asked.

Bunni chuckled and brushed the hair out of her face. "No, no children. In fact I'm quite pleased with this news. I think it's time that we pay our good friends in Halloween town a visit." She said smoothly.

"And Zel too right?" Shock asked.

Bunni's cheeks flashed red for a moment at the mention of his name before going back to their pale white shade. "Yes, that's exactly what we're going to be doing." She said with a grin.


	4. Lost Memories of A Shattered Future

Allison felt herself being shaken and woke up suddenly. He eyes flew open and she found herself face-to-face with Zel. Their faces were mere inches apart and despite herself she couldn't help but blush. If Zel was affected he didn't show it. He pulled his face back and sighed pushing some of his hair back behind his ear.

"It's about time you woke up," he said, "Me and Jack were starting to get worried that you might not ever get back up."

Allison looked around and noticed that she was yet again in a bed, but she was in a different house this time. She was about to respond to Zel when she felt something up against her leg. She looked down at her legs and saw a large spider crawling on her. She panicked and quickly swatted it off. It landed on Zel and he caught it without any hesitation. He arched an eyebrow at her and dangled the spider by one of it's legs.

"What are you scared of this thing?" he asked. Allison nodded. Zel shook his head and held it up higher. "Well these things are harmless I assure…" he grunted and quickly flung the spider to the floor. "The bitch bit me!" he growled.

"Well honey that's what you get for manhandling me." A small voice female voice said from the ground.

"Well thank you for making me look like an idiot." Zel said.

"_De nada_" the spider replied as she scampered out of the room.

Allison just sat there in shock. "D-did that spider just talk?" she said pulling her legs up close to her. She had always been deathly afraid of spider ever since she was young.

"Of course, why wouldn't it?" Zel asked. "You mean to tell me that after all the things you've seen here and a talking spider bothers you? I don't understand you humans at all." He grinned.

Allison grinned back. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She said. She couldn't help but feel her stomach flutter at his smile. It was the first time she had seen him do it and she had never been more reminded of Alex in her life. "Hey Zel," she asked, "if it's not too personal can I ask you about your past?" She felt her heart speed up. If she could find one small clue that could tell her that this was in some way or shape Alex…

Zel's grin faded and he looked at her for a moment in silence. "I can't really tell you much about that I'm afraid," he said finally. "All I know is what I've been told and what I've experienced so far. Everything before that is a blur." Allison felt the blood drain from her face and goosebumps erupt all over her. Things were starting to fall into place.

"Well what can you tell me?" she asked. Zel cleared his throat and sat down at the edge of the bed by her feet.

"Well," he said, "from what I've been told Jack found me on the edge of the forest one day half-dead and unconscious. He brought me back here and patched me up. He gave me a home and eventually I joined the town protection force." He said pointing at the bat insignia on his mask. "I've been here doing my job ever since."

"Well how long ago was that?" she asked her hopes flying high.

Zel was silent for a moment thinking to himself. "At least three years." He said. Allison's heart fell so hard and fast she could have sworn she felt it in her stomach.

"Oh…" she said her disappointment obvious, "Okay."

"Is something wrong?" Zel asked.

Allison shook her head. "No," she said, "its just that you remind me so much of someone I knew. He died a few months ago and I thought that maybe you…" the door to the room was pushed open and cut her off in midsentence. Jack strolled inside with a boney grin on his face.

"Oh, I see you're awake!" he said cheerfully. Is _this guy ever anything but happy_, Allison thought. "I was getting worried." Jack continued, "Since you're awake though you can join us for dinner."

Allison tilted her head. "I thought you were taking me home?" she asked.

Jack sighed. "Well yes that was the plan, but since you had another fainting episode we missed our daylight." He said, "I won't risk going out in the forest at night with all those shadows around, they'd swarm us and we'd be in deep trouble before we could even blink. So you'll stay the night with us in the safety of town and we'll take you home in the morning."

Allison couldn't argue with his logic. The forest had been scary during the day, and she didn't want to think of the horrors that stalked it at night. She nodded and slid out of the bed her bare feet touching the cold stone. She looked down at her toes and then back up at Jack. "Umm, where are my shoes?" she asked.

Jack nodded. "Oh, there over by the door there," he said pointing at the door he had walked through. "We didn't know when you were going to wake up so we gave you a bath." Allison felt her cheeks go red again and she looked extremely embarrassed. Jack noticed this and quickly tried to reassure her.

"We as in Sally," he said quickly, "I mean I would never…we would never…" he looked over at Zel who was already walked out of the room.

"We wouldn't look at a human like that trust me." He said without emotion as he walked out of the room. Allison felt an uncontrollable rage building up inside of her. She pushed herself off the bed and stomped after Zel out into the hallway. She was about to call after him and give him a piece of her mind when two small voices shouted out from the end of the hall.

"It's Zel!" the first one yelled.

"Let's get him!" the other called. Allison heard the scamper of feet and saw two small figures jump on top of Zel. He caught one of them in his arm while the other one jumped on his back.

"Oh come on guys, you're getting slow!" Zel chuckled as he grabbed the other figure off his back with a quick sweep of his arm. Now he held both of them under his arm while they struggled and giggled. Allison could now see both of them plainly. They were both small skeleton children with short brown hair.

Jack sighed. "Jax, Bonely, what have I told you two about rough housing before dinner?" he asked in a stern voice.

The two skeletons, Allison presumed they were both boys, sighed and stopped struggling. "It's fine Jack, I'm used to it by now." Zel said smiling again.

"I know, I know" Jack said, "But it's Sally's rule. She doesn't want them rowdy at the dinner table."

Zel nodded and let the two boys go. They quickly started laughing and started running back down the hall and out of sight. "Ah the joys of parenthood." Jack said chuckling, "I get to deal with those two and their endless energy every day. It makes me miss my youth." He said as he followed the boys down the hall.

Zel stood there and rolled his arm around in it's socket and popped his neck. "God those two are getting to big to be throwing themselves at me like that." He mumbled to himself.

"Umm, hi Mr. Zel." A small voice said from behind them. Allison turned and saw a small girl that looked remarkably like Sally. She saw Zel's expression melt almost instantly. "Hey there Kally," he said softly and tenderly, "What are you doing up here sweetie?" he asked picking her up.

"Umm, Daddy sent me up here to get the boys." She mumbled softly. Zel smiled and rubbed her messy black hair.

"Well I think you did a wonderful job, they came right down." He said with a smile. Allison saw that the Kally cracked a slight smile at him in return. She turned again as she heard a barking sound and a flash of white erupted from the walls. Kally quickly wiggled her way out of Zel's arms and nearly tackled the white figure in a hug. "Zero!" she chuckled happily.

Allison noticed that the white figure she had hugged was the ghost of a dog. What should have been it's body trailed behind him like a sheet and a large orange nose in the shape of a pumpkin sat at the end of his overly large snout. He barked happily and began to lick Kally as she giggled with joy. After a minute Zero slid out of her grasp and hurried down the hall. She quickly ran after him laughing the whole time.

"I've never seen anything get her as excited as that dog does." Zel said. Allison smiled and noticed that Zel was smiling again as well. All of her previous anger was forgotten and replaced with a feeling of happiness, the same happiness that she was positive that Zel was feeling as well. And regret.

He chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "I don't see any reason for us to stay up here, do you?" he asked.

Allison shook her head and was about to start walking when Zel touched her shoulder. "Hey, what were you going to say in the room?" he asked.

Allison debated over it for a moment before shaking her head. "Don't worry about it, it's nothing important." She said "You're not him anyway." Then she turned and walked down the hallway her heart filled with regret for the future that could never be. That wasn't and never would be Alex. They would never have their kids together. Their future was gone forever. She turned the corner with the tears of her broken future in her eyes.


	5. Battle Of Shadows

Dinner went quickly, but Allison didn't have much of an appetite. She was still trying to get her mind wrapped around the fact that Zel wasn't Alex. Ever since she had arrived and seen his face she had fostered the hope that just maybe Alex was still alive. She knew it was a long shot, but she had to hope for something. She lay in the bed that Jack had given her and stared off into the darkness without thinking. She had gone numb to the world and she didn't feel anything. She couldn't sleep so she just sat there in bed until the sun began to rise. She could see small fires burning on the edges of town which she figured kept the shadows at bay, and she could just barely make out the shape of figures walking around them and through the streets of the town. They walked in lumbering deliberate steps and seemed to be patrolling. As she sat out gazing over the sun sliding slowly over the tops of the trees in the distance she heard the door open behind her. She turned and saw that Zel had walked inside.

"Did you sleep at all?" he asked sitting down on the bed next to her. Allison shook her head.

Zel shook his head and chuckled. "You might regret that later. We're gonna have a long walk this morning and you're going to need your strength."

"I'll be fine." Allison said. She didn't want to say anything else, she didn't even want to look at Zel for fear that she might break into tears.

Zel sighed. "Listen," he said softly looking out the window with her, "I understand you've lost someone important to you, but that's no reason to stop living. Think about what he would want for you, I can promise you it's not sitting around like your life is over."

Allison closed her eyes. She couldn't argue with what Zel was saying she knew that Alex would want her to move on, to keep going and live her life to it's fullest. She felt a warm tear run down her face and she choked back the rest that tried to force their way out of her. She felt Zel's hand gently wipe the tear away and she couldn't help but smile. "Thank you." She said softly.

She heard Zel chuckle and then he stood up from the bed. "Come on, we should get going before we lose the morning light."

He extended a hand to her and she grabbed it and slid out of the bed. She took a deep breath and followed him out of the room. As they walked out of the house Allison noticed that Jack was standing outside surrounded by several figures. As they walked out into the light she was able to see what they were. They were all equally as tall as Jack, but looked like they suits of armor. On their chests they wore the insignia that was on Zel's mask. Allison looked at the suits of armor in wonder as they moved on their own.

Zel walked up next to her chuckled. "Say hello to the other members of the Town Defense Force." He said gesturing towards them, "Doctor Finkelstein made them for us a few years back after an incident the town had with creatures called Heartless, but that was before my time here."

Allison looked them all over. There were at least a dozen of them all standing at perfect attention. All thin, lanky, and tall just like Jack.

"Well you all might as well head out so you can make it back before the shadows of the day start to set in. It was a pleasure to meet you Ms. Allison." Jack said extending a boney hand out to Allison. She gripped it lightly and shook it. She offered him a weak smile without much feeling behind it. She had become rather fond of the skeleton man and it was a pity that she hadn't got to know him longer.

"And it was a pleasure to meet you as well Mr. Skellington, give my regards to Sally and the kids. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye." She said.

Jack nodded and returned the smile. He stepped out of their way and Zel took the lead with Allison behind him and the suits of armor following dutifully behind them. They walked in silence until they reached the gate that was one of the few ways out of the town. Allison looked at the high walls that surrounded the town and she wondered just how safe that could keep them. Zel opened the gate and it squeaked in the morning silence. No one was awake yet, so it ricocheted off houses and into the alleyways. "Someone really needs to fix this thing." He muttered to himself. Allison chuckled, for some reason she found that comical. Zel returned with a slight grin before walking out the gate and into the forest.

. . .

They had been walking for a while and the town was far behind them. Allison couldn't help but think at just how creepy the forest was. It seemed that everywhere she looked she could see something just out of the corner of her eye and she had to stop herself from squealing on multiple occasions. She was glad that Zel was with her, otherwise she would have been a nervous wreck.

"So, umm Zel where exactly are we going?" she asked both in an attempt to break the silence of the forest and out of actual curiosity.

Zel rolled his shoulder and looked up at the sky. "Well according to Jack there is a clearing in this forest that leads to other worlds, odds are that's where you came from and with any luck that's where we'll find your way home." He said. Allison nodded.

As she took another step though one of the suits of armor behind her was hit by something and got flung ten feet away before it crashes into a tree. The other suits were at the ready and pulled spears out of the slots on their backs. Zel had already pulled his sword and was scanning the forest looking for any sign of an attack. Allison saw a blur of motion out of the corner of her eye and it twirled through the air and landed on top of one of the suits and yanked it's head off with one quick jerk before tossing it, sparking wires and all, at a nearby suit. It collided with the other suits head and it went down in a short-circuited twitch. The blur slammed into another suit and left a thick dent in it's chest plate and send it crashing into the other suit that was still struggling to get up from it's collision with the tree. They both collided and went up in an explosion of flames. Allison could only stand there and watch as the last few were picked off with ease. Zel just stood there with his mouth set into a grim smirk. As the last suit of armor smashed to the ground the figure stood with it's back to them. It's wasn't even breathing hard.

"Did you really have to do that Bunni?" Zel asked

The figure turned and Allison could see that it was a woman. Bunni pushed a piece of stray hair out of her face and smiled.

"Well what else do I really have to do for fun these days?" she asked. Allison saw that the small bunny ears on top of her head twitched as she chuckled.

"Well is there a reason you decided to destroy my escorts other than your own personal fun?" Zel asked. Allison noticed that he still hadn't lowered his sword.

"Do I need a reason to check in on an old friend?" she asked, "After all I haven't seen you in a while Zelly."

Zel rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I told you not to call me that." He said.

"Well, that's exactly why I do." She said sticking her tongue out at him. "But enough about us, would you mind introducing your friend here?"

Zel took a slight step closer to Allison. "I would think you would know. I ran into your crew trying to abduct her when I found her. So why don't you tell me?" he asked.

Bunni rolled her eyes and waved a hand at him. "Oh please, details, details, details. Who has time for stuff like that these days?" she asked.

Before Allison could even blink Bunni had vanished and appeared right next to her. Zel had his sword raised and it had collided with Bunni's arm. She held it there with the blade pressing against the bare skin on her arms. She didn't even seem to take notice of it and Allison noticed that there was no blood.

"You're getting slow Zel, what happened?" she asked a little disappointed.

Zel grimaced. "Lack of a decent sparring partner I guess." He said.

Bunni pressed hard against him and shoved him backwards before planting a foot in his stomach and sending him sprawling to the ground. He hit it hard, but jumped back to his feet and held his sword at the ready.

"Wow, you really have gotten rusty." Bunni said, "I guess it's a good thing I showed up when I did."

Zel was about to get off the ground and charge her when all three of them saw the shadows slowly closing in around them.

"Back to back!" Zel shouted. Both he and Bunni closed in around Allison and made themselves ready for a fight as the shadows materialized.

"So I'm guessing these aren't friends of yours?" Bunni asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Zel said.

The shadow figures closed in and Allison could feel the tension in the air. She could feel Zel's muscles tremble against her before he sprang forward and cut one of the shadows in half. Bunni jumped forward a split second later and crashed into one of the shadows. Allison could only watch as the chaos unfolded around her. Zel moved with strength and fueled by anger slicing the shadows left and right with savage power an brutality, while Bunni ripped them apart with acrobatic and sly movements that left the shadows dazed and disoriented. For all of her speed and agility Allison could tell that Bunni was just as strong, if not stronger than Zel. She seemed to effortlessly rip off the limbs of the shadow warriors and her teeth ripped out the throats of the shadows and caused them to disappear into a cloud of dust.

No matter how hard and fast the two fought though the shadows seemed to just keep coming. Finally the two were overwhelmed. Bunni was tossed aside and crashed into Allison. The two tumbled over each other before coming to a stop outside of the circle of shadows. Bunni managed to scramble to her feet slowly and wobbled on her legs. Zel cut down another shadow before he noticed that the two of them were in danger.

Two of the shadows had broken off from the group and were making their way towards Allison and Bunni who now had a few feet of ground separating them. Zel quickly disengaged the shadow he was fighting and charged towards the shadows. He dove in front of Allison and cut the shadow down before it could take another step. Bunni barely managed to get out of the way of the one after her. She looked back at Zel and saw that he had chosen to save Allison instead. She felt a small twinge of pain in her heart before she turned back and took the head off the shadow.

"There's too many of them!" Zel shouted, "We need to get out of here now!" He grabbed Allison and helped her off the ground. Bunni nodded and hurried over to them. The three of them started running as fast as their legs could carry them. Allison dared to turn around and saw that the shadows weren't following them. She kept running though for fear that something else might catch them. When they were finally out of danger they collapsed to the ground. Allison was breathing heavy and her heart felt like it was going to explode. She simply laid there on the ground trying to take in enough breath. Zel and Bunni looked tired, but not as tired as Allison.

"They didn't follow us." Bunni said from where she was sitting on the ground.

Zel nodded. "Yeah, I might have a hunch why, but I'll need to ask Jack about it. Bunni you should come back with us to town." He said.

Bunni shook her head. "You know as well as I do that I can never go back. Jack exiled me, nothing we can do will change that. You get her back to where you don't have to babysit her." She said pointing at Allison. "I'll get back to my place and see if I can figure out where the hell these things are coming from. I can work faster on my own." She stood up, turned away from them and started walking away.

"Bunni, wait." Zel said hurrying after her and putting his hand on her shoulder.

She shrugged him off and kept walking. "Oh, now you care?" She asked and ran off into the forest.

Allison could swear she could see a tear fall from Bunni's eye as she ran off. Zel just stood there looking out after her.

. . .

Bunni ran until her legs couldn't carry her anymore. She finally collapsed in a heap of tears. _How could he have picked that thing over me_, she thought to herself. He could have easily saved both of them, but instead chose to protect that human. After all the two of them had been through, she had been his only friend when he showed up in town and he had been hers. They were outcasts in a town full of freaks. Her parents had abandoned her and fled town without a word to anyone. She had been forced to live on her own trying to survive in a world that she knew nothing about.

The other kids ridiculed her for years and when she became a woman things didn't change. But when another outsider came to town, one who was just as ridiculed as her, she didn't feel so alone. The two of them had become fast friends and did everything together.

Then about a year after Zel had showed up, one of the town's vampires had made a crass comment about him. Bunni didn't think, she immediately flung herself onto him in an attempt to teach him a lesson. She had never meant to kill him, but when she came back to her right mind the vampire was dead and his blood was on her hands. Jack, who had never been a big fan of her in the first place, exiled her from the town.

It hadn't been long before she ran into Lock, Shock, and Barrel. The three of them had been outcasts of their own after their time working for Oogie Boogie. She moved in with them into Oogie's place and before long she was in charge and the three of them followed her orders without question. Never once had Zel bothered to find her. She would often run into him when he ran errands out in the forest, but it wasn't the same. They would spar, make small, and eventually he would leave. The magic between them was gone and it had been even more evident today.

"Why?" she sobbed to herself. "Why does this happen to me?"

"It's because of that wretched human." A voice said from behind her. She turned quickly and saw a man standing with his back to a nearby tree. He had fair skin and jet black hair. His clothing was also a dark black and his eyes matched it.

"W-who are…?" Bunni couldn't finish her sentence. The figure walked forward slowly and squatted down next to her.

"Listen," he said softly, "I understand what you're going through. In my opinion if you can take him away from that precious little town of his then maybe you might have a chance."

"How do you know anything about me, I've never met you before in my life." She said.

The man smiled. "Well if you don't want my help then I'll just leave you alone, but I promise I can give you what you want." He stood up and started to walk away.

Bunni thought it over for a moment. She didn't know who this man was, or how he could know the things he knew, but she did know that she would never have another chance with Zel the love of her life would walk away from her before she ever had a chance to try and make him hers. She quickly stood up and hurried after the man.

"Wait!" she called. "You can promise me what I want?"

The man nodded. "Of course my dear, I specialize in these kinds of things." He said, "Just come with me and we will begin."

Bunni nodded and followed the man into the forest.


	6. The Oracle

Allison took a deep breath and leaned up against a tree. They had been walking for a long time and the sun was slowly starting to go down. She could see the look of concern on Zel's face and it made her worry. If they got attacked by a large group like the one that had just hit them then there was no way that he could hold them off on his own even if he was at 100%. Allison figured that they had at least two more hours before they were close to town and every second that they wasted was one that put them in closer danger.

"We aren't gonna make it." She said despairingly. "There's no way we're gonna make it back before nightfall. Those things are gonna be all over us."

Zel sighed and squatted down looking up at the sky. "Well thank you for pointing out the obvious. I figured that out a long time ago, I've just been trying to figure out a way around it." He said.

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a ragged piece of cloth. Allison walked over and squatted next to him as he flattened the cloth out on the dirt. She could see that it was a roughly made map.

"Wait how do you navigate in this place, everything looks the same?" she asked.

Zel smiled a humorless smile and shook his head. "That's because you don't know what to look for. It's all about really seeing things out here."

Allison tilted her head and looked around. "And how exactly do you manage that?" she asked.

Zel sighed and looked up from the map. "Okay, you see that tree over there?" he asked pointing to a nearby tree. "Do you see how it curves differently then all of the others and the tree markings are different?"

Allison stared at the tree for a moment before shaking her head. "Nope I have absolutely no clue what you're talking about. It looks exactly the same to me."

Zel chuckled and rubbed the side of his forehead that wasn't covered by the mask and laughed. "Well let's just keep this simple then: don't get lost."

Allison smiled and gave him a thumbs up. "Okay, I think I can manage that." She looked back down at the map and tried to find another way around their current situation.

"Well what about that there?" she asked pointing towards a heavily treed portion of the map.

"Well aren't you just full of questions?" he asked. "For your information that's the portion of the forest that no one goes into. It's uncharted and for all intents and purposes it's probably one of the most dangerous places around here for miles in any direction."

"And where are we now?" she asked.

Zel pointed to a point not too far away from the woods. "We're about here."

"So why not sideswipe the forest? It's on our way towards town, maybe we can throw them off our trail. I mean they have to be tracking us somehow right?" she said.

Zel shook his head. "No, it's too risky. It takes us way too close to whatever lives in there and everything is scared of that place even…" his voice dropped suddenly and Allison wouldn't have been surprised to see a light bulb appear over his head. "You're fucking brilliant. If we get close enough to the forest they'll back off even if they're following us." He grabbed up the map quickly and shoved it back in his pocket. "Come on, we need to move fast though." He hopped up and bolted off into the woods with Allison at his heels.

. . .

Allison could feel her heart beating hard in her chest, but she couldn't stop running. A few minutes earlier a group of shadows had appeared behind them and the chase had been going on since. She forced herself to keep going because she knew that stopping would mean falling into the hands of the shadows. Zel had fallen back behind her and was attacking any shadow that got too close to them. The dark forest was just in sight. The skinny dead trees of the woods cave way to the thick and fully leaved trees of the dark forest. It cast a heavy shadow on the already dark night, but as far as Allison knew, it was her only chance of salvation. She stumbled and almost fell before Zel grabbed her arm and pulled her along.

"Hang in there, we're close now!" he yelled.

Allison felt her legs burning and every muscle in her body was telling her to stop, but she kept pushing on. She could hear as the shadows followed behind them getting closer and closer with each passing second. As they reached the tree line her legs gave out on her and she collapsed. She tried to stand again, but her body wouldn't listen to her. Zel turned on a dime and stood over her with his sword raised and Allison waited for the chaos that was sure to ensue, but nothing happened.

She looked past Zel and watched as the shadows stood still in their tracks. She was breathing heavy and tried to force her heart to calm down before it exploded.

"Well, I guess you were right after all." He said obviously relieved. A few of the shadows tried to take a step forward but were stopped almost as if a barrier was keeping them out. Allison managed to sit up and looked out at them.

"I don't think they're leaving though." She said finally.

Zel nodded and slid his sword into it's sheath. "It would seem so." He said. "But we can't stay here until morning, I don't want to take the chance of them finding a way in."

"So what's the plan then?" Allison asked.

Zel shook his head. "I have absolutely no idea."

Before they had time to talk further the shadows let out a cry and disappeared into the forest as one. Both Zel and Allison looked at each other.

"Did you do that?" Allison asked.

Zel shook his head. "No, I didn't do anything." He said.

"That was my doing actually." A small voice from behind them said. Both Allison and Zel turned on a dime and saw a small figure standing in the darkness of the forest. "Those shadows are a boil on the face of my lovely forest."

Zel took a defensive step in front of Allison and drew his sword again. "Who are you and what do you want?" he snarled.

The small figure, who was no bigger than a child, rolled his eyes and sighed. "This place is filled with nothing but mindless grunts these days." He muttered.

With a wave of his hand Zel crashed to the floor gripping his head and screaming in agony.

"Stop, don't hurt him!" Allison said pleadingly.

The figure took a few steps towards her and held out his hand. "I will release him only after you've agreed to hear the things which I must tell you. Do we have an agreement?" he asked.

Allison considered for only a second before nodding and shaking his hand sealing in the deal. His hands were cold and it made Allison break out in goosebumps when she touched him. The figure walked back into the darkness of the forest and took a seat on one of the stumps nearby. Zel was still on the ground clutching his head and trying to suppress his cries of pain.

"As for introductions I will keep them short and sweet, lest the man there parish at your feet." The child said, except now his voice had changed from the small voice of a child to the deeper voice of something very ancient and very powerful. "I am the Oracle and the things I say are vague and gray. Your future is filled with much strife; you must do everything you can if you wish to save her life. You would do best not to be late, for the child's death shall seal your fate."

"But what does any of this mean, what child?" Allison asked.

The Oracle shook his head. "The prophecy has ended, I can tell you no more lest I change the course of your destiny." He said. His voice had reverted back to the small child's voice. "You are both free to go, my powers will keep you safe from those shadows until you return to your town." With another flick of his hand the Oracle released Zel from his agony.

Zel lay there on the ground curled up in a ball huffing and letting out small cries of relief. Allison quickly rushed over to him and knelt down next to him. "Are you okay?" she asked panicked.

Zel nodded and managed to stand back up on his shaking legs. "I- I think so." He said weakly. He tried to take a step and almost fell before Allison caught him. She looked back towards the dark forest but the Oracle was nowhere to be seen.

"Come on, we need to go." She said standing him back up and sliding his arm over her shoulder. "We've still got a long walk until we get back to town." Allison stepped forward supporting Zel's body weight and began walking into the forest.

. . .

Halloween Town finally came into view as Allison was about to give up hope. Zel had been giving her directions on where to go, but she hadn't been entirely sure if his mental state was strong enough to remember everything correctly. She could see some of the suits of armor running towards them with Jack close behind with his long strides. Allison's legs gave out on her and she fell to her knees and Zel collapsed to the ground. She managed to stay up a little longer before exhaustion finally took her over and she fell to the ground next to Zel. All she could do was lay there and look at his face as the darkness slowly closed in around her vision and smothered her in it's embrace.


	7. Return of an Old Friend

Allison slowly awoke and felt like she was buried in a haze. Her muscles felt stiff and her vision was foggy. She felt a blanket tossed over her and remembered the feel of the bed. She slowly sat up and looked around as her vision cleared. She was back in Jack's house. She let out a sigh of relief and relaxed her head against the wall and closed her eyes. The realization that she was safely back inside the secure walls of Halloween Town made her happier than she had been in a while. Then the thought of Zel returned to her head. She didn't know if he was okay, or even still alive. She quickly pushed aside the covers and made a beeline for the door, but before she could take more than one more step her legs gave out on her and she crashed to the floor.

She spat out a curse at herself, annoyed that she had allowed herself to be so helpless. She tried to push herself up to her knees, but her body wouldn't respond. Nothing moved and she could hardly think straight.

_What the hell_, she thought to herself.

She sat waiting for a few more minutes until she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. A few seconds later she saw Jack step around the corner with Kally close on his heels. He quickly looked down and hurried over to her. He knelt down next to her and then looked back at Kally.

"Hunny, go get Doctor Finkelstein okay?" he asked.

Kally nodded timidly and hurried out of the room. Jack looked back down at Allison and shook his head.

"How did you get off the bed? That medicine that the Doctor gave you should have kept you from moving for at least another hour." He said.

Allison tried to respond but her voice didn't want to work and her words only came out as a grunt. Jack wrapped his bony arms around her and hoisted her back into the bed. He gently et her down and Allison was impressed that he hadn't seemed to struggle at all. For as thin as he was she could tell that he was a lot stronger than he looked.

"What do you mean she fell out of the bed?" the voice of Doctor Finkelstein said from the hallway, "That's impossible, she can't move."

The mechanical wheelchair whirled into the room and the Doctor looked over at Allison and then at Jack.

"Is it true that she got out?" he asked.

Jack nodded. "Yes, she was on the floor when I got in here." He said.

Doctor Finkelstein rubbed his head and looked at Allison. "Hmm, this is very interesting. Very interesting indeed." He said.

Allison broke into a coughing fit and felt her limbs slowly limber up again. "What the hell did you give me!" she gasped out in between coughs.

The Doctor scoffed and wheeled over to her. "If you must know it's a highly accelerated medical tonic." He said, "It puts your body in a comatose state so it's able to repair more rapidly. The average person takes a few hours to wake up from it, much less move, but you my dear seem to have overcome it's affects in only a fraction of that time. How do you feel?"

Allison stretched and moved her arms around and swung her legs off the bed and stood up slowly. Other than feeling like she was about to throw up she felt fine.

"I'm feeling fine," she said, "Why what was wrong with me?"

The Doctor smirked. "This is indeed most interesting. My dear you had torn several of the muscles in your legs, you were suffering from the beginning stages of hypothermia, and you almost went into cardiac arrest when we found you. If we hadn't given you the medicine when we did you would surely have died."

Allison just stood there thinking about everything that he had just said. _I could have died_, she thought in wonder. It hadn't felt like she had been that badly off. Maybe the adrenaline pumping through her veins had shielded her from the real severity of her injuries.

"Wait, what about Zel?" she asked almost in a panic. "Is he okay, how badly is he hurt?"

Jack put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's okay; he's going to be fine. Another hour or two under the medicine and he'll be back to normal. For now though it's best that the both of you rest. Even though the medicine seems to be working fine I still think you should take it easy until we can get together a traveling party."

"Traveling party?" Allison asked.

Jack nodded. "Yes, after yesterday it became apparent to me that you can't stay here any longer. I'm going to personally head a group to lead you to safety. And according to Doctor Finkelstein you wouldn't have been able to leave yesterday, even if you wanted to."

"Jack is correct," Doctor Finkelstein said. "After doing some research on these said doors that Jack found many years ago I discovered that one of my predecessors many years ago did some research on them. While we don't know how or why they work, we do know when. It seems that every full moon a hidden door appears. This door as it seems leads to your world, unless revealed by the light of the full moon it's impossible to find."

Allison looked at both of them. "So when is the next full moon?" she asked.

Doctor Finkelstein wheeled towards the door. "In two days. That will give Jack the time he needs to get together a protection squad and move out. And trust me my dear you need all the protection you can get."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" she asked walking after him.

"Some things my dear you are better off not knowing. It will give you less to worry about, just know there are things far beyond your control at work here." He said. With that he wheeled away and out of sight.

Allison turned back around and looked at Jack. "What was he talking about?" she asked.

Jack shook his head. "I'm sorry; usually the Doctor and I don't see eye to eye, but here I think we both agree. You shouldn't know about it if it doesn't concern you. We will protect you and make sure these things don't come to pass."

"God damn it! Why are you treating me like I'm a child." She yelled, "I deserve to know what's going on here, especially if it concerns me"

Jack took a few steps towards the door and didn't say anything.

"Why would you ignore me like this?" she asked. "This is my life and damn it I deserve to know what's going on, I have the right!"

Jack turned in a rage and stood tall in front of her. "No you have no rights!" he yelled back, "You've caused nothing but trouble since you came here. You've put my town in danger and twice you've nearly gotten one of my best men killed. Twice now we've used our resources to save your life and accommodate you in the nicest of ways that we can. You have no right whatsoever to dare demand something from any of us. You _are_ a child here, we have to constantly to keep our eye on you for fear that you'll go off and get yourself killed with your inability to do anything to protect yourself or those around you!"

With that he turned around and stormed off leaving Allison standing there dumbly. She stood there a few more minutes before she sat back down on the bed and began to cry. She realized that everything he had said was true. She _was_ useless in this world and she _had_ almost gotten Zel killed twice in her defense.

"God damn it." She snarled between her tears and slammed her fist down on the bed. "Why am I so useless?"

A minute later she heard light footsteps on the floor and turned to see Sally standing over her. The woman placed a hand on Allison's shoulder and sat on the bed next to her.

"It's okay," she said softly, "Jack is just under a lot of stress lately. He didn't mean the things he said."

Allison shook her head. "No he's right. I've been nothing but a burden to all of you and I nearly got Zel killed twice."

Sally shook her head. "No, it has been a pleasure to have you here. Anyone in town will tell you that." She said. "And as for Zel you did no such thing. He protected you of his own will, never once did Jack ever order him to protect you. He did it of his own will, and no matter what anyone says I know he has a soft spot for you in his heart. Otherwise he wouldn't have tried so hard to keep you safe. This was more than just a job to him."

Allison sniffed and slowly stopped her tears. "But that still doesn't change the fact that I'm useless. I can't protect anyone." She said.

Sally gave her a smile and Allison could swore that she smelt flowers again. "Some of us just aren't fighters, so we have to find other ways to help. I've never been able to help in the fighting, so I just find other ways to help."

Allison smiled back at her. "Thank you." She said wiping the tears from her eyes.

Sally returned the warm smile. "It was my pleasure. I can't stand seeing sad faces."

Just then a loud explosion echoed through the town and made the house shake. Allison and Sally both looked over to the window and saw the smoke rising from the edge of town. Townsfolk were running around like scattered ants and the suits of armor that patrolled the town all made a dash for the smoke. Both of them jumped up and ran out into the hallway. Allison turned and saw Kally running down the hallway with Zero right behind her. She was obviously scared out of her mind and she nearly flung herself at Sally.

"Mommy what was that?" she asked. Zero was making a low growling noise in his throat and stood in front of the three of them as if trying to protect them. The two boys came a moment later and crowded behind their mother asking the same question that Kally had asked. Allison looked over at Sally and both of them knew they had to leave. The town had been breached and nothing was safe now. They both sped off down the hallway until a door opened to their right. A battered and tired looking Zel emerged with his sword in his hand.

"Zel you're okay!" Allison said and flung her arms around him in a hug.

Zel cringed and gently pulled her off. "I've been better, but I need to help everyone get out of here. I woke up from the medicine early, which let me tell you was not a fun experience. I've still got a nasty ringing in my ear."

He tied his sheath to his belt and took the lead in front of them. He was trying to walk like everything was okay, but Allison could tell he was in a lot of pain. He hadn't recovered as quickly as she had and he was still wounded somehow. If things came down to a real fight she wasn't sure if Zel would be able to hold on by himself.

They walked down the stairs and out the front door. The town was in total chaos as creatures ran in all directions and fires had spread randomly throughout the town. Zel pulled out his sword and looked around. Before they could go any farther one of the building close to Jack's house exploded in a flame of shadows. Several shadow figures burst forth and charged at them. Even injured though Zel was able to cut them down with blinding speed.

"What the hell are these things doing out already?" he asked. The sun had just begun to set, but there should still have been enough light to keep them at bay.

All of them turned and saw a figure strolling through the rubble of the house coated in a dark flame. It looked almost human-like until it stepped out of the smoke and the ears of a bunny could just barely be seen through the fire. the figure took a few more steps forward before stopping just next to the fountain that stood in the middle of the town square.

It turned and flicked it's hand slightly like it was swatting a fly and the fountain exploded in the same dark flame as the rest of the town. The figure let out a maniacal and half insane laugh of glee before turning back towards them.

"Bunni, what the hell are you doing!" Zel yelled.

Bunni sauntered forward with a look of drunk power on her face. The dress she had been wearing previously had been replaced with a dark layer of what looked like skin tight armor that covered her whole body and stopped just below her neck. Her auburn hair had been turned a dark shade of blackish blue and her eyes now held a purplish glow to them.

"I came for you Zel dear," she said, her voice now sounded darker and more sinister than Allison had ever heard it. "I'm going to take that bitch out of the equation so that you'll be all mine." she said pointing at Allison.

Bunni raised her hand limply and looked at Allison for a split second before flicking it forward and sending out a giant ball of black flame. Allison could only stand there in horror as the ball of flame flew at her at a startling rate. She threw her arms up to try and shield herself from the blast. The next thing she knew she felt something slam into her and she was knocked to the ground and Zel was crouching over her with his sword drawn. The ball of fire had exploded and left a large crater at the place they had just been standing. Allison looked around in panic for Sally and the kids and saw them a few feet away all cradled in Jack's arms.

"Bunni what the hell, stop this now!" Zel yelled at her pleadingly.

Bunni erupted in the maniacal laughter again. "Stop what? I'm just trying to help you realize your true feelings for me by killing that little witch." She took a few more steps forward.

Zel grunted and turned towards Jack. "Jack!" he called, "Get everyone out of here safely; I'll take care of this."

Jack nodded and hurried off with his family in his arms.

Zel turned back towards Bunni and stood up gritting his teeth and holding his sword at the ready. "Fine Bunni, if you won't stop this then I'll just have to put you down for good." He snarled.

He gripped his sword tighter and charged out into the town square towards her.


	8. Painful Memories

The world seemed to stop for that split second as Zel charged forward. His entire life flashed by him and it seemed to all happen in a blink of an eye. He remembered waking up in Halloween Town, he remembered being an outcast. Being hated and reviled against by all of the members of the town. He remembered how they wouldn't even look at him, how even the passing glances seemed to be ill intended. Then he remembered the one person who had shown him kindness.

. . .

He ran. He ran and ran and just kept on running. It wasn't fair, what had he ever done to deserve this. All he had ever been to these people was polite and sincere and they treated him like he was the monster; like he had some kind of horrible disease that would kill all of them. It wasn't fair. He finally collapsed in a dark alleyway far from the sight of anyone else. All of the monsters were walking around doing their normal daily things, no one thought to look into the darkened alleyway and see the young man sitting there with his knees drawn in close to him guarding his face and the commotion of everything muffled the sound of his sobs. This wasn't the first time he had broken down like this. Ever since he had awoken into this life that he had no memory of he had been stretched to his limits and back. He was a strong person, but it could only last for so long with all of the hostility aimed at him. He gripped his hands tight and cursed at himself for being different from them. He reached his hand up and gently touched the left side of his face. It had been scarred beyond repair by something and it left him feeling insecure about everything. He wasn't sure if that was what was causing the others to turn their backs on him or if it had been something he had done. He quickly forced his hand down and buried his face in his knees, hiding the scars from the rest of the world.

"Now why in the name of all things Halloween would you want to do that?" a voice said from next to him.

Zel quickly looked up and over to his right at the other end of the alley. It was shrouded in shadows and made things hard to see in the failing hours of twilight. He squinted his eyes and could vaguely make out a shape standing a few feet from him. The figure took a few steps towards him and stopped.

"That scar makes you unique," the voice said, it was obviously feminine. "there's no reason to hide it. It sets you apart from everyone here."

The figure stepped forward into the light her bare feet touching the light first before the rest of her body followed. Zel looked up and saw that it was a girl not much older than he was, which would have put her around 17. She wore a light yellow sundress that ended just below her knees and looked almost identical to him other than the fact that she had a pair of small bunny ears off the top of her head. She looked down on him with her crystal blue eyes and smiled softly. Zel couldn't help but return the gesture.

The girl extended a hand towards him continued to smile. "Hi, my name's Bunni. What's yours?" she asked.

Zel gently grasped her hand and she hoisted him to his feet with a shocking amount of strength for her petite looking body. "My name's Zel." He responded.

Bunni raised her eyebrow and tilted her head. "What kind of a name is that?" she asked.

Zel chuckled and gave her a teasing smile. "Well what kind of a name is Bunni?" he asked.

Bunni erupted into laughter and patted him on the back. "Okay, I guess you got me on that one." She chuckled, "So you're that new guy around here that everyone's been avoiding?" she asked.

Zel nodded shyly suddenly ashamed.

"Hey, don't give me that look. I honestly don't care what or who you are. I'm an outcast too, I have been all of my life. Eventually you get used to it." She said. Then she hopped up on a nearby trashcan with catlike agility and balance and stood there leaning against the alley wall. "but then again who would want to be friends with a bunch of stiffs like them anyway? They're all different, but they can't see past our differences. Pfft who needs em'?"

Zel shrugged, although he agreed with her wholeheartedly. This whole town was nothing more than a giant melting pot of freaks and monsters and the two of them were outcasts for some reason? He didn't understand it.

Bunni looked down at him from the trashcan and smiled. "But I like you, I think you're different from the rest of the pompous hypocrites. You wanna be friends?" she asked.

Zel was star struck. Out of all his time here no one had even wanted to talk to him, let alone ask if he wanted to be friends and out of the blue here came this girl who wanted to be his friend after only moments of meeting him.

"Uhh, sure." He said finally.

Bunni practically exploded off the trashcan and left it knocked over behind her as she pounced on him. She grabbed him in her arms and hoisted him off his feet and started jumping around letting out squeals of joy. "Finally, finally, finally!" she shrieked happily, "I finally have a real friend!" she was laughing uncontrollably and after a second Zel couldn't help but laugh along with her.

She finally set him down but the smile on her face wouldn't go away. "So do you have a place to stay?" she asked.

Zel nodded. "Yeah, I live with the Skellingtons for now." He said.

Bunni's smile vanished. "Oh, you live with them…" she trailed off.

Zell looked at her confused. "Yeah, why?" he asked, "Is that a problem?"

Bunni nodded. "Yeah," she said looking away, "They…they don't like me very much."

Zel took a step towards her. "Well you know what, that doesn't matter to me." He said firmly, "You're the only friend I have here and nothing that the Skellingtons or anyone else says will ever take that away. I'll always be your friend." He said with a smile.

Bunni turned around with tears in her eyes and just stared at him for a moment. Finally she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder.

"Thank you," she sobbed, "thank you so much. I've never had anyone say anything like that to me before."

Zel smiled and pulled her close. "Well that just goes to show you that you've never had a friend like me before." He said.

And there in that dark alleyway away from the rest of the world their close friendship began. It would continue to strengthen and grow until the day that the two were forcibly separated by fate.

. . .

Zel shook the images out of his head. There was no time for any of this now. His town was in danger, his people were at the risk of death, and the one behind it all just happened to be the person he used to call his friend. There was no room for compassion, no room for…

_Your past_

The words echoed in his head and as he took another running step towards her his head swirled with more memories and he was again lost in that split second.

. . .

The night was dark and cold as the two of them ran through the town laughing. Zel on the right with his hearty laugh and his cool demeanor and Bunni on the left with her elegant laughter and her wild excitement. The two were the perfect pair and they knew it and so did the rest of the town. They had just set one of the werewolves' tails on fire during the Halloween celebration and had ran before anyone could catch them. They just kept running and laughing, daring the world to try and stop them in the prime of their youth. They made their way through the graveyard, Bunni hopping from gravestone to gravestone and Zel running next to her, until they came to the gates that marked the pumpkin patch.

This had been the sole property of the Skellington family ever since Halloween Town had first been formed by Jack's Ancestors. It was their duty to defend the souls stored inside the pumpkins of the patch which maintained peace and harmony throughout the town. Zel and Bunni made their way carefully through the patch making sure not to disturb any of the soul containers until they came to the hill that stood in the middle of it. They both climbed to the top and sat down on it's curved end. Between the laughter and the running they both struggled to catch their breath.

"Oh my god, did you see how he yelped!" Bunni said still laughing.

Zel continued laughing and nodded his head. "Yeah, that was priceless."

The two of them just sat there laughing until their laughter finally died down and left only the quiet of the night and the dying lights of the town.

"Well it was actually pretty scary this time." Zel said finally as he looked up at the stars.

Bunni nodded. "Yeah, Jack sure knows what he's doing when he plans this stuff. Even though I'm sure the Mayor will try and take some credit for it like always."

Bunni sighed and looked up at the stars with him. "Do you think we'll ever be a part of it one day? The celebration I mean."

Zel shrugged. "I suppose anything is possible. Who knows maybe in a few years we'll be running this show." He sighed and put his hand over his scars.

Bunni knocked his hand down and looked over at him. "Why?" she asked, "Why are you still trying to hide it. It makes you special."

Zel shook his head. "I dunno. You say that, but I just don't feel it sink in. I feel like it's bad on some levels. Like it sets me apart; that it makes me ugly."

He didn't even notice Bunni cocking back her hand and it shocked him when he felt her hand explode across the side of his face.

"Shut up!" she yelled at him, "You're always doing this. You never think you're good enough for anything, but you are Zel." Tears were now coming down her face. "You always act like you're insignificant and unimportant but you are so much more than that. You have so much talent and promise it's not even funny. And you're not ugly, in fact you're the farthest thing from it that could possibly exist. Those scars make you who you are. They make you my one and only friend, they make you my only family, they make you the man I…" she trailed off and wouldn't finish.

Zel just sat there dumfounded. He dropped his hand away from his burning cheek and looked over at Bunni. She had turned away from him and refused to look in his direction. He took his hand and slid it over hers and squeezed gently. She turned and looked at him and there in the moonlight under the stars there lips met for a brief second that felt like an eternity to the both of them.

. . .

But it was never meant to be, for not long after that Bunni murdered one of the Town's Vampires in cold blood and Jack exiled her from the town. It was a tough blow for Zel, Bunni never came to say goodbye. A few times after that he had ventured out into the forest to try and find his dear friend, but she was nowhere to be found. Months passed and when they finally met again out in the reaches of the forest they were both different people. Zel had become more responsible and a trained soldier, while Bunni had taken on the life of a careless rouge. Zel could never bring himself to hate her though, no matter how difficult she made his trips into the woods in the passing months he still regarded her as a friend. But the spark that they'd had that night under the stars was gone.

Zel knew this as he charged forward, this wasn't the same Bunni that he had kissed under the stars, but the memory kept playing in his head as he ran. Then he looked into her eyes. Her once beautiful crystal blue eyes had been transformed into something of a dark evil. This wasn't the Bunni he had been friends with, this wasn't even the Bunni from the other day. She had been changed somehow, Zel could tell. No matter what bitterness she held against the town she would never have gone as far as this, never in her life. That was when it struck Zel. This wasn't her fault. Maybe his dear friend was still in there somewhere, all he had to do was reach her. But could he do it before she leveled the entire town and massacred tons including himself?


	9. The Battle For Halloween Pt 1

*Sorry it took so long to get this up guys, its been a busy few weeks and I've been forced to split this extra long chapter into two parts. Hope you guys enjoy*

Zel charged forward with his heart swollen from the emotion. His head screaming the memories of his past. Bunni raised her hand and a sadistic smile spread across her face and a blast of shadow erupted from her palm. He barely managed to dodge out of the way as ball of shadow exploded just to his left. He shot a look back at Allison to make sure she was okay, and other than looking scared and worried for his safety she was okay. Zel knew he had to get Bunni away from her before she got hurt in the crossfire. Zel sidestepped a few steps so that Bunni's back was to Allison.

"Bunni, listen to me" he said, "I know that you're in there. You have to listen otherwise I _am_ going to have to put you down." He cast his eyes down to the ground. "Which you know I don't want to do." He said softly.

Bunni grimaced and gritted her teeth and gripped her head as if a massive headache had just overcome her. She stumbled a few steps back and growled in pain. Finally she shook her head and stood up again.

"Nice try, but you're not going to lie to me anymore. You've wanted me gone ever since that bitch came into the picture. That's why you tried to save her instead of me!" she yelled and a black aura surrounded her and Zel could feel the massive amounts of energy flowing out of her.

He took a step back at the sheer intensity and tried to keep his calm. If he moved the wrong way then she might take it as a threat and start attacking again.

"Bunni, think about this for a moment." He said, "The only reason I saved her is because she's not strong enough to protect herself. You are, you're stronger than you know. And I _know_ that you can fight this thing that's inside of you."

Bunni just stood there looking at him. The aura around her started to lessen and her muscles stared to slack. "You mean you…" She started to say, but before she could a bolt of energy ran through her body and caused her to scream in pain.

"_Don't listen to him, he's lying to you_!" A different voice said from out of Bunni's mouth. "_You know he would say anything to protect that_ human." The voice said with a certain level of distaste at the word human.

Zel snarled and took a step forward, he recognized that voice. "Caligo get the hell out of her now!" he growled, "She's not one of your playthings you bastard!"

The dark voice chuckled. "_Well since you asked so nicely I think I'll oblige that request of yours. But I'm afraid it's too late to save her, I'm going to destroy this town and everything in it, and I promise you that girl will be mine_." he said pointing towards Allison.

She sucked in breath and turned pale. Zel could tell that Caligo was sending out his aura to paralyze her in place. This wasn't the first time that he had dealt with the Master of Shadows. He and Jack had barely managed to run him out of town a year or two back for treason, but he had never been this strong. Something had happened in his time away that had made him as powerful as anything that Zel had ever seen. He had been commanding the shadows since the beginning, a theory that he and Jack had been debating for a while now. Now however it was certain, these things were working on his orders.

Bunni took a step back and twirled her finger in a swirling motion and a few of the shadows slipped out of nowhere and started closing in on Allison. Zel tried to take a step forward, but Bunni jumped in his way. He could tell that Caligo was gone and that Bunni was somewhat back in control.

"Bunni, get out of my way now." He said pleadingly, "If you don't she's going to die."

Bunni smirked. "Well good riddance then." She said. "With her gone then you'll be all mine."

Bunni might have been back, but her mind was still far from okay. Zel knew that she would never be the same again. Caligo had broken her mind and twisted her to his will. There was only one way to set her free again.

"Fine then," he snarled, "I guess you leave me no other choice. I'm sorry Bunni."

He swung his sword at her head, but she dodged it nimbly and fired a blast of shadow at him. It hit him square in the chest and sent him flying across the plaza and through the front door of Jack's house. He managed to get up on his feet while his vision still whirled and blurred. He stumbled forward as Bunni strolled forward with another blast already prepared. Zel shook his head and forced his vision to clear and charged forward. Bunni flung the energy at him and he jumped clear over it launching himself into the air. Bunni sidestepped expecting him to try and come down on her from above, but he had other plans. He landed behind her and took off at a dead sprint towards Allison. She was running for her life across the plaza from the shadows that were behind her until her foot snagged on a loose brick and she fell to the ground. The shadows were upon her in an instant and Zel thought that it was the end of the girl he had come to know, but just as he was about to give up hope a swarm of bugs flew out of the ground and the bricks and engulfed the shadows. The shadows flailed around as the bugs dug there assorted fangs, teeth, and pincers into them. They ran off screaming in high pitched howls of agony. Zel looked around and saw that the other shadows that were busy sacking the town and attacking the other residents were engulfed in the bugs as well.

_It can't be_, he thought in wonder. Before he had a chance to think further though Bunni was back on the offensive. Zel turned and managed dodge out of the way of her next blast. He turned towards Allison.

"Run!" he yelled, "Go find Jack or someone who can help you. You're only getting in the way here!"

He saw the hurt in her eyes, but he could honestly care less right now. If he was going to have any chance of survival here then he would need to concentrate on this fight and stop trying to babysit. He heard her run off as he charged back towards Bunni Dodging the blasts of energy left and right as he went. He swung his sword at her and she grabbed the blade and held it there.

"I'm not here to kill you Zel, I want you to come with me. All of these other people are just getting in our way. If they all die then we can be together now and forever." She said.

Zel could see one of the suits of armor grappling with a shadow out of the corner of his eye. It's spear was flung out of it's hand, but it still managed to fight back the shadow and hurried down the alleyways, most likely to try and help the citizens of town escape.

He turned back to Bunni and snarled. "_Never_!" he growled, "After what you've done here today and all the pain you've caused."

Bunni tensed and her pleading eyes turned into eyes of pure fury. He tightened the grip on his sword and yanked with all her might. The sword was yanked out of Zel's hand and it went flying into the air and vanished behind one of the houses.

"Fine then, I'll just have to take you by force and make you see it then!" she screamed. Zel felt the wind get knocked out of him as she drove her fist into his stomach. He was tossed into the air and felt Bunni's foot smash into his back. The sheer amount of her speed was startling, she had managed to kick him into the air and jump above him in the blink of an eye. He flew towards the ground and hit it hard. As he impacted blow flew out of his mouth and a small crater of crushed bricks and stones lay beneath him.

Bunni landed on the ground next to him gracefully and strolled over to him. "So, are you sure you want to keep this up Zel?" she asked as she picked him up by his hair. He felt his mask split in half and crash to the floor.

"Are you kidding," he said weakly, "I'm just getting started." He slammed his fist into her face and sent her reeling backward as he staggered to his feet. He had a bad feeling about this fight, she had him beat in more ways then one, but he had to keep fighting. He had to protect everyone.

. . .

_I can't protect anyone_, Allison thought to herself as she ran for her life. The town was in flames and people were running and screaming in the chaos. The suits that protected the town were putting up a good fight, but it wouldn't be enough. The shadows just kept coming; it was like there was no end to them. For every one that was taken down another three came to take their place. She dodged out of the way of the multiple brawls looking for someone, anyone who could help. She slipped through alleys and between buildings, feeling more useless than she had ever felt in her life.

She stopped to catch her breath and looked around for some kind of sanctuary. She was just about to start running again when she heard a small cry off to her left. She quickly ran in the direction of the cry until she came to a small house that had been blasted open. She quickly ducked inside and stopped in her tracks. Dead on the floor in front of her where a pair of werewolves who had been torn apart by the shadows. She fought back the urge to vomit and leaned against one of the walls.

"Dear god." She mumbled to herself. Then she heard the cry again. She quickly pushed herself off the wall and walked over to the female werewolf. She knelt down next to her corpse and saw that something was moving. She quickly moved aside the body and saw a small furry wolf cub. Her heart melted as it whimpered and clung onto it's mother when it saw Allison. She hushed it and gently put her hand out towards it. The cub slowly let go of it's mother and wobbled over to her on short legs. It sniffed her for a moment before licking her hand with it's small tongue. Despite everything around her Allison couldn't help but smile, something had survived this chaos and that gave her hope. She picked up the cub and it nestled into the arm. She quickly hurried out of the house with the cub in her arms. She was about to run off down the road when a shadow crashed it's way through an alley and stood in front of her. The cub whimpered a little and seemed to shrink into Allison's arms. She took a step back and the shadow looked at her hungrily. It was about to take a step forward when something plummeted from the sky. Allison jumped back as Zel's sword crashed into the pavement next to her. She didn't hesitate to pick it up. She found that it was light enough to be held with one hand. She put the sword out in front of her and the cub.

The shadow obviously wasn't impresses though, as it simply kept coming towards her. She gritted her teeth and lunged forward with the sword. It caught the shadow off guard and the blade cut into it's head with the ease of a knife through butter. The shadow fell to the floor and disappeared. Allison took a deep breath and hurried off in the other direction. Things were going bad now, she could tell. There was only going to be a few ways out of this, and none of them looked too good.

. . .

Zel was near his last leg and he knew it. Bunni had pushed him to his limits and beyond and she hadn't even broken a sweat yet. She strolled up to him and flipped her hand in his direction. A blade of shadow ripped apart the ground leaving a giant gash in the ground in it's wake. Zel managed to jump out of the way, but it clipped the edge of his right arm. He felt the blood pouring from his arm and cursed. Things were going south fast and he wasn't able to even put up a fight.

"Zel, why won't you just give up and come with me. We both see that you can't win this. There's no point in making you suffer needlessly my love." She said.

Zel just shook his head and got ready to make another charge. Maybe if he could keep her occupied long enough then the others would be able to get to safety. He wiped the blood off his mouth with the back of his left hand and smirked.

"Oh please," he said with as much cockiness as he could put into his voice, "I could keep this up all day." Despite himself he smirked. Who knows, maybe he could. He had never been pushed as far as he had been today. Bunni had made him go harder and faster than his body had ever had to before. Maybe he still had some reserve fuel in his tank that was just waiting for the right moment to kick in.

Bunni flicked both of her hands to her side and channeled the energy. Zel braced himself and when she brought her hands up to fire and jumped to the side. The first wave flew past him, but he realized that she had yet to follow the other one. He cursed at himself for being too predictable right before the second blast hit the ground below him and sent him flying into the side of one of the houses. He crashed through the wall and tried to struggle to his feet, but Bunni was already ahead of him. She was through the hole and on top of him before he could manage to get to his knees.

"Zel, I'm serious" she said, "if you don't stop this I might end up hurting you."

She charged another energy shot and aimed it at his head. Zel closed his eyes and got ready to take the next blast. It was gonna hurt like hell and he knew it.

"Pumpkin Cannon!" a voice shouted from behind them. There was a flash of light and Bunni went crashing through the other end of the house. Zel looked up and saw that Jack was standing there with his hand raised.

"I haven't seen you use that one in a while." Zel said as he staggered to his feet.

Jack nodded. "It's been a while since I've had to, but this time I'll make an exception."

They both heard Bunni chuckle as she pushed free of the rubble. She shrugged her shoulder and pieces of stone fell off her.

"Fine then, I see how it is." She said with her back to them. "He's the one corrupting your mind. I'll just kill him too!" she screamed turning on a dime and sending a blast of darkness flying from her hands.

Zel tried to jump out of the way but Jack stood perfectly still and held out one of his boney hands. The blast stopped at his hands and energy crackled as the darkness slowly started to disappear. Bunni just stood there with her mouth open in shock. Zel wasn't much different.

"It's a good technique," Jack said patting his hands together, "but it has way too many holes in it. All it takes is one well placed energy shot and your whole attack turns to dust."

Bunni clenched her fists and stepped forward. "Fine then, I'll just have to kill you without it." She snarled.

She shot forward and swung a swift and power packed right hook at Jack's face. If Zel had been in the way of it he was sure it would have killed him, but Jack merely put up his left hand and stopped the punch dead in the air. Bunni hopped back obviously flustered. Zel just looked in wonder. He knew that Jack was impressive when he went into battle, but this was something far more than he had ever expected.

"You come here and destroy my town and put my people in danger," Jack said calmly, " I'm going to make sure that you never see the light of day ever again."

Zel shuddered. Jack hadn't raised his voice or put any anger into it, but Zel could still clearly here the menace and the raw power behind Jacks voice. It wasn't a threat, it was a fact.

Bunni stepped back and started a low chuckle that turned into a full blown laughter. "Do you really think that I was giving you my all?" she asked. "I was just warming up and gauging your power."

Bunni took a step forward and Zel was pushed back as a huge amount of energy erupted from her. Jack grimaced and stepped next to Zel.

"I think we're going to have a problem." Jack said softly.

Zel nodded. "Yeah, I think so too."


	10. The Battle For Halloween Pt 2

Allison kept running with the baby cub in her arms. It whimpered whenever something was near them, but always at the last minute it seemed that the shadows fell to the ground. She tried to think of a reasonable explanation, but nothing seemed to make sense. It also didn't help that she was still running for her life. She tried to turn a corner, but at the end of the alley a lone shadow stood there watching her. She knew she couldn't turn around, if she did she might run into the other shadows that had been pursuing her. She took a deep breath and held out Zel's sword again.

"Alright," she murmured to the cub, "here we go again."

She took a few defiant steps forward before the shadow twitched and split into several. Before she even had a chance to realize what was happening the shadow had split into nearly seven different figures. Two of them slipped along the walls of the alley and closed in behind her while the others blocked her advance.

She knew that she had no chance of getting out of there, that much was certain. There was no way she could fight off all of them and she couldn't just break through them. She looked down at the cub in her arms and felt her blood boiling. Here she was again helpless to do anything but sit and watch. Jack had been right; she _was_ just another helpless child in this world.

She gritted her teeth and tensed her muscles.

"_No_!" she snarled to herself, "I'm not just gonna sit by and play the victim anymore."

She turned quickly and threw the sword at one of the shadows. With some amount of luck it impaled itself in the shadows head and it vanished leaving and opening. She only had one shot at it. She tossed the cub through the opening before another shadow moved to occupy it. The cub hit the ground hard and rolled for a minute before it finally managed to get to it's feet. The cub shook itself looked back at her almost pleadingly.

Allison shook her head and the cub seemed to understand her. It gently nodded it's head in return and bolted off down the street.

"Well wasn't that a valiant thing to do?" a smooth voice said from behind her.

Allison turned and saw a man dressed in all black standing behind her with his hands in his pockets and gently leaning against the alley wall. He had jet black hair and Allison found something very unsettlingly familiar about him.

"You really have no idea how long it took to track you down. I figured I'd be able to nab you on your way back to the doors, but my god you are a tricky one. Going into the Dark Forest like that, that my dear was a stroke of brilliance." He said.

Allison took a step back. "Who are you?" she asked.

The man chuckled. "It seems you still have a lot to learn about this place my dear." He said, "But for now just be satisfied to know my name, it's Caligo."

. . .

Zel dove out of the way as a much larger blast blew through another building. He heard Jack voice in the distance and was amazed that he could still stand after being rocked by another of Bunni's blasts. He knew the Skellington clan were tough, but Jack was beyond that.

"Pumpkin Cannon!" Jack shouted over the dim of battle.

Another explosion rocked the town and Zel looked to see Bunni saunter out of the smoke as if nothing had happened. Zel snarled and made a run for her exposed back. Jack had been commanding her attention for the last few minutes and the two of them had just been exchanging blows leveling everything in their path. Zel pushed himself to go as fast as he could, maybe if he could catch Bunni off guard then he'd have a chance to take her down or at least wound her. He drew back his uninjured arm and got ready to throw a punch. His fist stopped in midair just inches from her face.

"Oh that's a dirty tactic baby, it doesn't suit you." She said without looking back.

Zel wasn't even sure if she flicked a finger or not, but his stomach was hit with the force of a freight train and he went flying. He crashed into the ground and his whole body was filled with agony. He spit out blood and saw the corners of his vision going dim. His head swam with darkness and he couldn't form a coherent thought. His whole body felt like it would split apart into a thousand pieces and he would simply cease to exist.

He could hear Jack and Bunni dimly, but everything seemed out of focus. Jack was now resorting to using one of the Skellington's greatest weapons.

"Fuego!" Jack snarled. The area around Bunni exploded in hellfire and she screamed and jumped out of the way.

Zel couldn't help but smile to himself. Bunni should have been smarter. Now he was angry and there would be no holding back. He tried to get to his knees, but his body screamed at him to stay down.

He obliged and was content to sit and watch the fight in a blurry haze. Jack kept throwing out hellfire and Bunni kept trying to get out of the way. To pretty much anyone else it would have looked like Jack had Bunni on the ropes, but Zel knew better.

As strong as the Skellington clan was, they only had so much power to spend. And Jack was quickly approaching that limit. The reason that so few people ever got to see the Skellington special attack was because of the massive amounts of energy it took to cast it. Jack had already used about six full blow attacks. That was well beyond his limits. Jack had always been a performer and with that he was able to keep a very believable poker face, But Zell could see that he was struggling to even move at this point. And it seemed Bunni could see it too.

She stopped suddenly after hopping out of the way of a particularly lethal looking hellfire and smiled.

"What's the matter Jack?" she asked mockingly, "Run out of gas already?"

Jack shook his head and forced a smile. "Not even close, I could keep this up all day." He said.

Bunni erupted in laughter. "Oh really?" she asked, "Now where have I heard that before?"

Jack wasn't even able to see her move, and before Zel could blink Bunni had kicked him clear across the courtyard. As she landed she just stood there cackling. Jack slowly staggered to his feet and Bunni walked over to him slowly. She flung a bolt of shadow at him and he was barely able to deflect it off his arm, but the force of it drove him to his knees. Bunni was only a few feet away and death was in her eyes. That was when Zel spotted the spear that the armor soldier had dropped when he'd been bested by the shadow. Zel managed to get to his feet after having a mental battle with his body and staggered over to the spear on the ground.

. . .

"Caligo?" Allison asked making sure she had heard the name right.

The man nodded. "Yes, and we've met before if ever so briefly." He said.

"You're the one that took over Bunni?!" she asked remembering the name Zel had said.

Caligo shrugged. "If you can even call it that, all I did was nudge her to follow her emotions. But no, we've met before that as well darling."

Allison went through her memory, but nothing seemed to remember this man.

Caligo finally sighed and shook his head. "Well I suppose your memory doesn't matter to me anyway. I was the one that dragged you into this world my dear."

Allison remembered the memory of the tendrils of darkness wrapping around her and pulling her into the tree with a sickening clarity now.

"There you go," Caligo said slowly, "It's all coming back to you now isn't it."

Allison took a step back. "So this was all your fault then, all of this death and destruction?"

Caligo bowed and chuckled. "Yes, this was all the idea of yours truly." He said.

Allison looked around and saw that Zel's sword was lying on the ground not too far away from the shadows blocking her exit. She quickly looked back at Caligo.

"Why?" she asked, "Why would you do all of this?" If she could keep him talking then maybe she'd find a moment to slip away.

"Why?" Caligo asked almost laughing, "Why not? It gives me a chance to get my revenge on these fools and it gives me the most important thing of all: You."

Allison looked at him puzzled.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand, but maybe this will convince you to come with me." He said opening one of his hands.

Alex's dogtags hung from his hand and for the first time in a long time Allison realized she hadn't had them on. "I figured you might want these back." He said tossing them at her. She caught them and put it back on quickly.

"If you think this is gonna make me trust you then you're out of your mind, this just means you stole them from me." She said moving slowly closer to the sword.

Caligo nodded. "Of course, that was just to sweeten the deal. This is the real reason." He said producing a second necklace from his pocket.

Allison's heart stopped. It was her necklace. The small jewel encrusted necklace that Alex had bought her for their two year anniversary. The last time she had seen it was at Alex's funeral. She had slipped it into his lifeless hands before they buried him as a final parting memento.

"How…how can you possibly have that?" she asked her face white.

"Because I can take you to him, he's not as far gone as you would expect Allison." He said softly taking a step closer to her. "Will you come with me, I can reunite you two."

Allison took another step back and thought about it. "Alex." She murmured to herself softly.

Caligo wasn't expecting her to shove Zel's sword straight through his chest, but that's exactly what she did. He reeled back and she slipped through the shadows.

"Liar!" she called back as she ran. She only got a few steps away before the shadows grabbed her and pulled her back.

Caligo stepped forward with the sword still sticking out of his chest.

"Well, well, well" he said "I guess I was wrong about you afterall. You're quite the vixen when you want to be." He slowly slid the sword out of him and Allison could see that even his blood was dark.

The sword wound sealed almost as quickly as it appeared and after a moment the only sign that it had ever been there was the slit in Caligo's shirt. He chuckled and slammed the sword into the side of the alleyway.

Without another word he opened a portal of darkness and looked back at Allison. "Don't say I didn't try to give you an easy way into this. I guess I'm just going to have to take you forcefully."

Allison screamed and tried to break free but the shadows had a hold of her and she had no hope of getting free.

"Zel!" Was all she could cry out before she was plunged into the portal.

. . .

Bunni was only a few steps away from Jack by the time Zel finally managed to wrap his hands around the spear.

"You know Jack, when you banished me I was too afraid of you to even question your decision." She said, "But now I see just how pathetic you really are Skellington. You never could have stopped me just like you can't stop me now. I'm going to grind you into dust then I'm going to take my Zel with me."

"Sorry to burst your bubble hun." Zel said from behind her. He thrusted the spear straight at her chest. It stopped short just like his punch had, blocked by a barely visible wave of darkness.

"I thought I put you down and out of the way baby, what are you doing still moving?" Bunni asked like it was no big deal. She paid absolutely no attention to the spear Zel tried to hit her with. Zel kept trying to break through the field with what energy he had left, the whole while his body was screaming in agony.

"Zel, why don't you just quit and come with me. I love you, I always have. You loved me once too why is it so hard to admit you still do?" She said.

"I've never loved you!" Zel snarled at her.

It looked as if Bunni's whole world had just collapsed on top of her. She just stood there staring at him. All of the darkness around her disappeared and her hair and eyes returned to their normal shades in the blink of an eye.

"Zel, did you really mean-" She couldn't finish her sentence because at the very moment Zel realized Bunni was back to her normal self, her force field had vanished and his spear had impaled itself in her chest. Bunni let out a small wavering cry and fell to the ground.

Zel collapsed next to her and his knees and ripped out the spear. He cradled her body in his arms.

"No, no!" he yelled, "This isn't happening, this isn't fucking happening!" Jack pushed himself off the ground and quickly came over.

"Z-Zel," Bunni managed to say from behind the blood pouring out of her mouth, "Did you really mean w-what you just said?" she asked.

Zel shook his head. "No, I didn't mean it at all. I've loved you ever since I met you."

Bunni nodded weakly and smiled. "G-good. I was hopping you'd say…"

The life slowly faded out of Bunni and she collapsed in Zel's arms.

Zel felt his heart burst into flames. "No, Bunni stay with me." He pleaded, tears forming in his eyes. "You can't leave me, not now, not like this."

Zel shook her gently trying to make her come back. "No, this isn't happening." He said weakly the tears falling freely now, "You can't leave me. I need you. Bunni…" he finally let her body lay on the ground and gently closed her eyes. Jack just stood there, not sure of what to say.

Zel's tears were falling harder now as he gripped his head and closed his eyes tight as if doing that would take all of this away. He sat there sobbing in his sorrow until he couldn't take it anymore and let out a cry of anguish and loss that could be heard all throughout the town.

"Oh how heartbreaking, you broke my plaything." A voice said from behind them.

Zel turned and saw that Caligo was standing only a few feet away.

"Oh well, I never expected her to do much anyway. She was a waste of my powers."

Zel stood up and took a few steps towards him. "This was all your doing you heartless bastard!" he yelled.

"Wait, why don't you let me explain myself before you go charging off on a stupid rampage." Caligo asked.

"We're listening." Jack said stepping next to Zel.

"Thank you, at least one of you has some sense." Caligo said. "Now then… wait never mind I wanted that bitch to die in the first place." He erupted in laughter. Zel charged forward in a rage and right before he was able to tackle Caligo to the ground he dove through the open air. Caligo appeared right behind him holding a sword. Zel recognized it as his.

"Here, you may want to use this. Your lady friend tried already, but maybe you'll have better luck." He said tossing on top of Zel.

"Wait," Jack said, "you have Allison?"

Caligo nodded. "Indeed I do and by the end of tomorrow she'll be… well I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."

Zel grabbed his sword off the ground and charged at Caligo, his tears still fresh on his face.

He swung as fast and hard as he could, the pain of his body was long gone fueled by his rage, but for each stroke Caligo simply side stepped out of the way as if Zel's swipes were moving no faster than snail. Zel tried to lunge forward with another strike, but Caligo who had seemingly grown tired of this game, grabbed him by the arm.

"You've always been a disappointment to me Zel, ever since the beginning. I suppose I should just kill you, but that would be no fun. I want to see you suffer just like your girl there did when I broke her mind." He said softly in Zel's ear. Then with one swift jerk he ripped Zel's arm from his body. Zel fell to the ground in agony as blood poured from the wound. Caligo simply tossed the arm aside like it was a piece of trash.

"You were wise not to get in the way Skellington, maybe there's hope for you yet." Caligo said before opening a portal and disappearing from sight. And with that screams of Zel mixed in with those of the burning town and the smoke and death rising into the air, the battle for Halloween Town was over.


	11. Rebuilt

Jack ran as fast as he could cradling the body of his injured friend through the streets of the town. Halloween town had suffered a heavy beating, but it looked as if things could still be salvaged. Jack assumed that most of the town's residents had made their way out to the emergency shelter that had been set aside for just such an occasion. As the figurehead of the town it was his responsibility to take care of his town, but right now Zel's life was in danger. After Caligo had disappeared the shadow figures went with him and the town was deathly quiet. Jack quickly found Doctor Finkelstein's tower which seemed a little damaged from the outside. Jack could only hope that the instruments inside were still okay. If not they had no other way to save Zel. He burst through the door and quickly made his way to the lab. He set Zel down on the table. He was gritting his teeth and slewing out a steady stream of curses. Zel was tough, but he'd lost too much blood already and there wasn't much hope of stopping the blood without some kind of surgery. Jack quickly made his way to the other side of the lab where the doctor usually kept his equipment. He was about to open one of the cabinets when he heard a rustling sound from behind him. He turned as saw a portion of the lab wall opening from the inside.

"Get out of my lab, I won't let you ruin my research!" Doctor Finkelstein called as he quickly wheeled out of the wall.

Jack had never been happier to see him. "Doctor!" he called out.

"Jack, what on Earth are you doing here?" he asked.

Jack pointed down at Zel on the table. "He's hurt badly, I figured this would be the only place that could help him."

The doctor inspected Jack carefully. He had know the Pumpkin King for a long time, but this was the first time that he had seen the Master of Fright and the Demon of Light afraid. He then looked down at Zel covered in his own blood and realized that the boys life was slipping out of him. His vision was mostly likely blurring by now and the stream of curses had been reduced to nothing more than weak murmurs now.

The Doctor sighed. "I'll do my best Jack, but I can't guarantee anything. He's hurt worse than I've ever seen."

He wheeled over and looked down at Zel. Then suddenly the boy jerked up and grabbed the Doctor by his shirt.

"That research you were doing for me, did you find anything?" he asked almost pleadingly.

Doctor Finkelstein sighed. "Indeed I did, but it has a very high possibility of killing you my boy."

"Then do it." He snarled.

Jack took a few steps forward. "Zel, think about what you're saying I mean…"

Zel cut him off. "We don't have another choice!" he yelled. "He's too strong for both of us, you know that. That's exactly why you stood by and watched as he tore me apart!"

Jack didn't say anything. He knew it was true.

Zel looked back up at Doctor Finkelstein. "Please, he took Allison. I can't lose her too." He said weakly before passing out on the metal slab.

Finkelstein looked over at Jack who was leaning up against the wall now. "He's your soldier Jack, it's your call to make." He said.

Jack shook his head. "No, he's made his choice. Do what he wants, I have to go check on the others."

With that Jack left the room and walked out of the tower with a look of forlorn hopelessness on his face.

. . .

Allison woke up with her muscles throbbing and her head a blur. She tried to move until she realized that she was tied up. Her arms and legs were pulled away from her by thick ropes and when she looked down she had to resist the urge to scream. She was suspended high up in the air at the top of a large cavern. She tried to struggle at first, but it soon became apparent to her that the ropes would not budge. She slowly caught her breath and looked around trying to find some way out of this situation. The ropes were securely tied to the cavern walls, so there was no solution there. The ground was much too far away to even think about free falling anyway. Underneath her a few of the shadows were patrolling the cavern floor, so getting help was also out of the question. She closed her eyes and tried to think of something that would calm her down. She had to have a clear head if she was going to have any hope of finding a solution. She opened her eyes again and looked down at her chest and saw that Alex's dog tags were still hanging around her neck. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"At least you're still with me baby." She murmured to herself.

"Wow, that's a little pathetic." A voice said from above her. She looked up and saw a large hole in the cavern that was only a few feet above her. Sitting there on the edge of it was a young boy, not much older than 12 from the looks of things.

"Who..?" Allison couldn't fathom how such a young child had made his way here without getting hurt.

"Listen, introductions are useless at this point." The boy said pushing his straggly brown hair out of his face. "I can promise you though that whoever you're talking about is miles away from here."

"He's dead." Allison said sharply.

The boy stood and looked down at her. "Well then my sincerest apologies. At the moment though I think you have more pressing matters than your dead…?"

"Boyfriend." Allison said, "He was my boyfriend."

The boy nodded. "Ah, so then it was love." He said.

"What do you mean?" Allison asked.

The boy shook his head. "Nothing, just talking to myself. I've made a nasty habit of that these days. It's pretty tragic actually. Dealing with everyday life without another companion in the world. I have to say I'm quite enjoying this conversation."

"Well I'll talk to you all you want if you get me out of here." Allison said. Silently she was pleading that he would agree.

The boy rubbed his chin thinking. "Hmm, well I'm not sure." He reached into his pocket and grabbed something that Allison couldn't see. "Me myself I've always been a gambler. Let's let fate decide shall we? If it's an even number I'll get you out of here and if not then I'm truly sorry."

He tossed the objects that Allison could just barely make out as a pair of red dice against the edge of the cavern. It ricocheted off the edge of the hole, bounces off a stalactite and landed back on the edge of the hole.

The boy titled his head and sighed. "Sorry, I guess it's not your lucky day. It's a 13." He grabbed the dice up and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Allison called pleadingly, "You can't just leave me here. I'll die!"

"I'm sorry, but it's not your fate to get saved here. Maybe the fates will be kinder to you than they have been to me." The boy said. And with that he was gone.

. . .

Zel tried to look around and get his bearings, but nothing looked familiar. He took a few steps forward until he realized that he wasn't wearing anything. There was a soft breeze against his bare chest. He took a deep breath and found that the air was surprisingly cold. He took a few steps forward and felt soft grass beneath his feet. His mind kept telling him to walk, he didn't know why but he listened and kept going.

Trees surrounded him on all sides and the soft wind blew at his hair as he walked. Finally he came to a clearing in the trees and saw a figure laying in the grass and looking up at the sky. He was about to turn and leave when the figure sat up.

"It's about time you got here. I was worried you'd keep me waiting a lot longer."

Zel took a few more steps forward when the figure turned around and stood up. Zel took in a sharp breath. The figure standing in front of him was a perfect copy of himself down to the scar on his face.

"How?" Zel asked.

The other Zel shook his head. "Listen, we don't have a lot of time. As of right now you're dying. There's only one thing that can save you right now is me."

Zel was silent. If what the other Zel was saying was true, then he would need to let him speak.

"Good," the other Zel said, "you're not bombarding me with a million questions. That's gonna help. You need to merge your spirit with mine. That's the only way that you're going to be strong enough to survive this and then save Allison."

Zel nodded. "Okay, how does that work?" he asked.

The other Zel nodded with a smile on his face. "Well it's good that you're so eager, I was afraid I'd have to force you into this." He said.

Zel shook his head. "No, I'm going to do whatever it takes to save Allison."

The other Zel nodded still smiling.

. . .

Jack looked over the shaken refugees of his town. They had all taken a beating and they all looked tired. A large group of vampires stood together brooding over the loss of one of their own as Jack walked by. As of now the total number of townsfolk lost in the attack was unknown to Jack, but he knew when everything was said and done that the town would have questions for him and things they would expect him to do. He only hoped that he would be able to fulfill their requests. He was still covered in Zel's blood when he finally found Sally and his kids. Sally rushed forward and embraced him.

"Oh Jack I was so worried." She said, "Are you hurt?"

Jack shook his head. "No, I'm fine. Zel on the other hand, he had a massive injury. I left him with the doctor."

Sally nodded solemnly. The kids were quiet as Jack spoke. Kally sat on the floor hugging Zero close to her chest and Jax and Bonely were cross-legged next to her watching their father give Sally the news about Zel.

Jack finally finished his account of the fight and all of them were silent for a moment.

"Is Mr. Zel going to be okay?" Kally asked finally. Her voice was a soft mumble as always and Jack could hardly believe how much she looked like her mother.

He shrugged. "I'm not sure hunny," he said squatting next to her and gently stroking her cheek. "He's hurt really badly." It pained him to see the sorrow in her young face as he told her that. He knew that if he lied to her though, that she'd never forgive him.

"Well thank you for the overwhelming confidence. It touches my heart." A sarcastic voice said from behind them.

Jack turned quickly and saw Zel standing behind them. Kally flew up from the floor and hugged him as tight as her small arms could manage.

"I knew you'd be okay, I knew it!" she cried out cheerfully.

Both Jax and Bonely exchanged grins as they saw him. Jack had a hard time believing his eyes. When he had left Zel the boy had been on the verge of death and Jack had serious doubts that he'd pull through. The Zel that stood in front of him now looked more alive than he'd ever seen. Doctor Finkelstein had reattached an arm to him and it looked almost as if nothing had ever happened. Zel's mask which had been destroyed during the fight was nowhere to be seen on his face as the scarred half of his face shone for all the world to see. And the power. Zel now radiated a strength that hadn't been there before. It was like a refreshing breeze of air in a stuffy room. Everyone in the shelter seemed to sense it as well, because all eyes were on him.

Zel grinned and waited until Kally was done hugging him before approaching Jack.

"I hope you're not ready to quit yet Bone Boy," he said, "Because we've still got one last fight to finish if you've got it in you."

Jack couldn't help but smile. His tired bones seemed to have be revitalized with energy and he was itching to be off on one last fight.

"What do you say?" Zel asked, "You in for one last roll of the dice?"

Jack nodded. "I suppose it's my responsibility." He said walking over to Zel. "But don't ever use that expression again." He laughed. It was a deep throated laugh full of joy and warmth that he doubted he would have been capable of a few minutes ago.

"The Pumpkin King and his soldiers ride again." Zel said to himself as they turned to leave.

Sally watched with an anxiously held breath as they walked off into the greatest fight of their life.


	12. The Beginning of The End Pt 1

The town was now a good hour behind both Jack and Zel as they ran. On any other given day Jack would have had to slow down so that Zel could keep pace with his long strides, but today Zel was the one leading the charge. His face was set in determination and nothing would waver him.

"So I guess you know where you're going?" Jack called as they ran.

Zel nodded. "In a way," he said, "I can feel her energy. Don't ask me how or why, but I know it's her."

The sun was slowly setting in the distance and a glow of dusk was setting in on the forest. Jack was worried to be this far away from the town with the darkness setting in over the landscape, but he knew this had to be done. Until this darkness was silenced once and for all, they would never be safe. It would always be a struggle for survival and many more would die before it was over. If he had to give his own life to prevent the deaths of several then so be it.

Zel slowed for a moment then finally trotted to a full stop. His eyes darted back and forth between the trees. Jack slowly walked up next to him and scanned the horizon with him.

"What is it?" he asked.

Zel slowly reached his hand down towards his sword. "We're not alone anymore." He said softly.

Jack looked around and couldn't see anything. He was about to ask Zel if he might have taken a hard blow to the head when dark shadows began to form on the forest floor and the shadow monsters appeared all around them.

_What did the Doctor do to you_, he thought.

Jack called forth the flames of his soul and stood ready to battle. Zel shuffled backwards and pressed his back up against Jack's.

"So, you ready for this Jack?" he asked. The cockiness in his voice was almost startling.

"Well aren't you very cocksure right now?" Jack asked.

Zel nodded. "If Caligo thinks his pawns are going to keep us from him, then he's more delusional than I thought. We charge on three agreed?" he asked.

Jack nodded. "Might as well I guess."

Zel rolled his shoulders and gripped his blade. "One…"

The creatures moved in closer.

"Two…"

Jack clenched his fists together and got ready to make his move.

"Three!"

They both blasted forward as fast as they could. Zel's image flickered for half a second before it reappeared in front of a shadow and then vanished again as it's top half separated from it's legs. Jack slammed his bony fists into one of the shadows and it exploded in a cloud of darkness.

Flame erupted around them as Jack called forth his Hellfire and exploded it over the shadows. Zel dashed in between the streams of flame and sliced the shadows apart as he went. He was moving faster than he had ever thought was possible for his body to move. If he had been this fast when he had fought Bunni maybe he could have put her down without…

The fury of her death and his will to protect Allison from sharing the same fate fueled him as rage and his urge to protect washed over his body. His blade moved before him as a blur of motion as it moved from shadow to shadow. He spun around in a wide arc and slashed the group of shadows that had surrounded him. He stopped and looked around him with a smirk. The other shadows were getting scared.

Several slowly started backing away from the both of them and a few were running for the hills.

"What do you say we give these stragglers a little bit of incentive to leave huh?" Zel asked.

Jack nodded. "I thought you'd never ask." He said as he allowed the flames to engulf his body.

. . .

Allison kept trying to struggle against her bonds, but it was no good.

"How long are you going to keep at that hun?" Caligo asked from his seat below her. He had seen to watching her himself after the boy had left. "And more importantly what do you plan on doing if you do get out, fall to your death?"

Allison didn't reply.

Caligo sighed. "Fine, deny my attempts at conversation. I try to be a good host and this is the thanks I receive. You humans are a rude bunch."

Allison couldn't help but scoff. "Oh, I'm being treated well?" she said, "I would hate to see what you do to people you don't like."

Caligo chuckled. "Then that makes you a very smart girl."

Caligo turned as one of the shadows appeared to his left. It said something in a guttural language that Allison couldn't understand before it vanished again.

"Well that was unexpected." He muttered to himself. Caligo then turned and made two swiping move and Allison fell. She screamed on her way down before he caught her. She tried to struggle and get free, but his grip was too much for her. "It seems your friends actually came after you."

Allison felt her heart jump. "You know they're going to kill you." She said now sure that she was going to be okay.

Caligo erupted in laughter. "Oh please, this is nothing more than an inconvenience. I assure you that they'll be dead long before they reach us."

Caligo swiped at the open air with his other hand and a portal opened right before them and he strode inside carrying Allison with him.

. . .

The last of the shadows fell as Zel's sword slashed through it. He had barely broken a sweat. A fight like this would have left him exhausted and hardly able to walk before. He turned to Jack and saw that he looked a little worse for wear, but still capable of giving his all in a fight.

"So," Jack said huffing, "Where is she now?"

Zel reached out with his mind until he found her energy signature. It had moved since the last time he had felt it.

"They're north of here, we have to move now. They've got a good 20 minutes on us now." He snarled. He sheathed his sword and quickly started off in the direction of the signature.

Jack sighed and started to follow. "They can't just stay in one place can they? No that would be too simple."

. . .

Allison was suspended only a few feet off the ground now, but she was restrained with chains now and Caligo had a symbol unknown to her directly beneath her on the floor. Judging from what she could see from the windows in the room they were in some kind of tower. All of the stone in the building was a dark black and blue color that seemed to suck out all of the light other than the bright moonlight that had begun to work it's way in through the large opening in the ceiling of the tower room.

Caligo paced back and forth looking back up at the ceiling. "Well it seems we've come to the end of this little game of ours. Once the moon reaches the middle of the sky, then you my dear will no longer be necessary."

"What happens when the moon reaches that point?" Allison asked.

Caligo only laughed. "I suppose you'll see when we get there won't you. Let's just say that you won't be around much longer my dear, and that I'll be strong enough to break open the barriers separating the worlds."

Allison felt a cold hand grip her as she realized what he was saying. If Zel didn't get here before the moon was at it's full height then she would die.

"They won't let that happen!" she snarled.

Caligo smiled. "Oh my dear, you're so trusting. If they're not dead yet, then they won't be here in time if ever."

As soon as Caligo had finished his sentence the door to the room was blown open and Jack and Zel strolled in.

"Sorry to disappoint you then." Zel said cracking his neck as he walked.

"Zel, Jack!" Allison called happily.

Caligo shrugged. "Fine then, I suppose the two of you were a bit hardier that I had assumed." He turned back towards Allison and then looked up at the moon which was rapidly rising. "It looks like I'll have to deal with me myself then."

Caligo took a step forward and his aura surrounded his body in a dark haze. It made Allison break out in gooseflesh. Zel took another step forward and that's when Allison could see his as well. A dark red aura surrounded him and it was almost equal to Caligo's.

He looked at Zel shocked. "You're not the same boy, you shouldn't be this strong."

Zel grinned. "What was your first clue?"

He darted forward and hit Caligo with all of his force and sent him flying halfway across the room. He managed to regain his balance and wiped the blood off his mouth as he slid.

"Fine, I guess I'll just have to fight you for real now." He said standing up. He shook his arms before bringing them back up and pointing at Zel.

An explosion of darkness engulfed the place where Zel stood and he was lost in it. Allison cried out in panic when she could no longer see him in it's depth. Jack had managed to jump out of the way in time and was watching in horror.

Caligo had started laughing, but it died abruptly in his throat as Zel strolled out of the dust without even a scratch on him. Caligo smirked and nodded.

"So it seems you've got some real skill boy," he said impressed, "I suppose I should stop insulting you."

Caligo ripped off his shirt and tossed it to the floor and tossed back his hair out of his face. Small surges of power rippled over his muscles as he strolled forward to meet Zel. It was only a split second before the two vanished and collided in the air. As fast as Zel was it seemed he was still too slow for Caligo. He went flying out of the collision and crashed into one of the walls of the tower and hopped off it as the wall fell away leaving a giant hole in the side of the room.

"Please boy, did you think you could just stroll in here and take her back from me? I'm stronger than the two of you combined." Caligo said.

Zel exchanged a look with Jack and he was able to read the Pumpkin King's eyes. He rushed forward as Jack flung out a blast of Hellfire.

It was over in half a second. Caligo snatched Zel out of the air and tossed him in the way of Jack's blast before returning a blast of his own at Jack. Zel crashed to the ground and Jack was engulfed in a dark flame. Zel managed to struggle back to his feet as Jack staggered out of the dust of the blast. The both of them stood there injured, but still ready to fight.

"Oh good, it looks like I'm gonna have some fun with this." Caligo crooned. Two balls of pure black filled his hands and he tensed his arms to throw them at the two heroes.

"Don't you touch them you son of a bitch!" a voice cried from beside him.

A wave of darkness slammed into Caligo and sent him crashing through the room and out into the night. Both Zel and Jack turned at the same time to see a figure standing in the opening that Zel had created when he crashed into the wall.

"Hey Zelly, next time you try and kill me, do a better job. Because you suck at it." Bunni said as she pushed a loose strand of hair out of her face.

"How…?" Zel was at a loss for words.

"His powers rubbed off on me I guess, his little healing power comes in pretty handy when you're trying to come back from the dead." She said.

"Fine then." Caligo said as he crawled back through the hole. "I'll just kill you two then you ungrateful bitch."

He stood straight in front of all three of them and waited. They jumped forward at the same time and all three of them descended upon Caligo. And as a group the three of them were knocked back in succession from Caligo's rapid blows. Zel managed to land on his feet and charged back before Bunni and Jack had hit the ground.

He brought his sword up in a slashing arc, but Caligo caught it with the back of his hand and shoved Zel back. Zel tried to counter with a swift strike to Caligo's head with his free hand, but it was no good. He was still too slow. Caligo slammed his head into Zel's and sent the boy staggering back.

"It's so sad. I brought you here to work with me, but it seems that you can't even do that right. I thought blocking out your memory would be good enough, but no. You still refuse to get rid of that annoying heart of yours." Caligo said.

He shot out his hand and grabbed Zel by the throat and pulled him towards him.

"I suppose it's time to fix my mistake." He growled. And before Zel could even comprehend what was going on his was sailing through the air.

Then he was falling. Falling out into the open night as the ground rushed to meet him.


	13. The Beginning of The End Pt 2

"Zel!" Bunni screamed as he was flung out of the tower. She darted forward and was about to jump out after him when Caligo appeared in front of her.

"Going somewhere?" he asked.

The next thing she knew Bunni was launched backwards and hit the ground hard. She felt the darkness inside her rising and pushed it aside. She didn't need it's help. That was his power and she wouldn't use it again unless she had no other option. When she struck out at him the first time her emotions had gotten the best of her and she felt the darkness trying to take control of her again. She staggered to her feet and gritted her teeth at the pain. Caligo hit hard, he didn't hold back at all when he wanted to hurt someone. Jack was standing next to her, he wasn't moving but Bunni could tell that he was desperately trying to find some sort of weak point that he could exploit.

Zel had been the strongest, there had been no doubt of that. He was the only strong enough and fast enough to take Caligo on head-to-head. Bunni and Jack didn't have a prayer even if they worked together. They had to find a weak spot. And if that was going to happen then she had to keep Caligo occupied while Jack looked. That was the only way.

Bunni clenched her fists and darted forward. The move seemed to catch Caligo off guard for a split second, which was all Bunni needed. She changed her direction on a dime and slipped behind him. His back was exposed and she finally had a shot so she took it. Or so she thought.

Caligo's afterimage vanished right in front of her eyes and she felt a massive pain explode up her spine and she screamed out in agony. She fell to the floor her entire body screaming and every pore on her body radiating agony.

"Well, I guess that plan didn't work as well as you had hoped, eh Jack?" Caligo said, "Use the Bunni as bait while you tried to find an opening. Admirable and I would expect nothing less from a Skellington, but futile nonetheless."

Darkness exploded all around Jack and he barely managed to jump out of the way as Caligo's fingers danced out to his side. With every flick another tendril of shadow erupted from the floor and Jack was hard-pressed to avoid them. As fast as he was, Caligo barely had to exert any energy to keep up with him.

Jack dove forward and snarled out a blast of Hellfire before one of the tendrils connected with his midsection and pinned him against the wall. The Hellfire exploded over Caligo and engulfed him in an explosion of light. For a moment Jack almost hoped that maybe he had been able to do some real damage to the man, but his was quickly discouraged. Caligo simply stood there just as he had seconds before, not even phased by the attack.

"Your father was a lot stronger than this Jack, I'm kind of disappointed. When you drove me out of Halloween Town a few years back I was hoping you were holding back, I guess it doesn't pay to overestimate your opponent." He sighed and shook his head. "I was hoping to have a little more fun with you once we got the fodder out of the way, but I guess I'll just end this right now."

One of the tendrils slid out of Caligo's back and wavered in front of Jack's skull for a moment. Jack struggled and tried to free himself from the tendril that had him impaled on the wall, but it was no good. Right before Caligo was about to destroy the Pumpkin King for good, a power surge erupted from behind him. He pulled back his tendril and turned around to see a large dark sphere of power had formed on the floor. Bunni stood up the darkness flowing off of her and took a step forward.

"Don't touch him." She snarled.

Caligo broke out into fits of laughter.

"Are you really going to use that against me?" he laughed, "Even if you could manage to beat me it's way too late."

Bunni turned around and saw that the moon was almost at it's full height. Red tendrils of power where flowing up from the floor and into Allison who was now screaming as her life force was slowly being sucked out of her. Bunni tried to run and rip her off the chains, but Caligo but up a wall of darkness in front of her.

"I don't think so," he cooed, "I'm your problem right now."

Bunni growled and called out more of the darkness. It was a gamble, but she knew that she would have no other way of trying to beat Caligo. It was this or nothing. Bunni let the energy explode inside her and charged forward, fueled by the power of darkness.

. . .

_You're still not listening_.

"Who?" Zel asked in the darkness.

_You're listening, but you're not realizing what I'm saying here genius_.

"What are you talking about?"

_You really don't remember do you_?

"Remember what? What am I supposed to be realizing?!"

_Who you are, what you are, where you've been, and why you're here_.

"But I know all of those things!"

_No, no you don't. Here, let me show you_.

. . .

_The forest was hot with very little breeze blowing through it as the summer months raged on. It would be autumn soon, but that didn't stop the heat from permeating the world for a few more weeks. The animals ran back and forth oblivious to the two people that had invaded their sanctuary. They lay in the cool grass trying to beat the afternoon heat. The girl looked over at the boy and smiled; he returned the smile and wrapped his hand in hers. For the moment they didn't need anything else in the world but each other. They had their perfection in each other's eyes. He leaned over and whispered in her ear something he had told her a million times. She smiled again and they kissed their underneath the trees of the forest that they had come to love._

. . .

Bunni exploded away as their will's met again in the air. She had been throwing every bit of power that she dared to use at him, but Caligo simply had an answer to everything that she did. She slashed at him with a blast of energy, but he simply caught it in the palm of his hand like it was nothing. He shrugged and tossed the blast back at her at twice the velocity and she threw up a barrier to try and stop it, but this time the velocity was too much and it smashed through her barrier like it was made of glass. She put her hands in front of her to try and shield herself from the blast, but it did nothing and she was tossed aside like a ragdoll. She tried to struggle to her feet again as Allison broke into a new fit of screaming. She choked it off and gritted her teeth as the tendrils receded again. Caligo sighed and started walking towards Allison, ignoring Bunni as she tried to regain her footing.

Caligo reached out a hand and cupped Allison's face in his hands.

"You really are a strong one aren't you, most people would have succumbed to this by now. I suppose that means your soul is just as strong." He said musingly.

"Get your fucking hands off her!" a voice yelled from behind him. He turned and saw that Zel was standing in the opening that Caligo had tossed him out of minutes before.

He turned and smiled. "Oh, I'm so glad you could join us again Zel, I was afraid that I was going to have to be bored while I waited for her soul to drain, but now I've got a playmate again."

Zel shook his head. "Sorry, but I think you've got me all wrong. That's not my name."

Caligo looked at him for a moment, now that he thought about it something did look strangely different about him.

Allison looked up in shock. "A-Alex?" she asked a weight forming in her throat.

Alex nodded. "I'm sorry I kept you waiting baby, I just forgot who I was. I hope you can forgive me for everything that's happened. I swear I'm going to get you out of here."

Caligo chuckled and twitched his arms as a wall of shadow surrounded Allison. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I don't care what you call yourself, but I'm not going to just let you walk out of here with my prize."

Alex gripped his sword and took two steps forward. "I'm giving you one chance to walk away before I wipe you off the face of this planet. I suggest you take it." He said.

Bunni just looked at him for a second. "Are you crazy, you can't let him live!" she yelled.

Neither of them paid any attention, they simply stood there staring at each other. It was Alex who finally broke the silence. "Fine," he said, "I'll just take her back then."

Caligo was about to start laughing again, but it died in his throat as soon as Alex moved forward. He vanished right before all of their eyes and reappeared in front of Caligo. His sword was rammed through Caligo's stomach and all of them just stood there in wonder.

Caligo took a step back clenching his stomach. He pulled out Zel's sword and watched as the blood flowed out of him. Then just as quickly as it had happened the wound was sealed back.

"You're faster boy, I'll give you that." Caligo mumbled.

The two vanished again and collided in the air. Zel's sword was still on the floor, so as the shockwaves exploded in the air Bunni could only imagine that the two were fighting fist to fist. A huge explosion rocked the tower and the two fighters appeared on either side of each other. Zel covered in a bright white light that seemed to gently float over him and Caligo shrouded in his cloak of darkness.

The silence was biting as the entire world seemed to have stopped at the sound of the shockwave. Then Caligo fell forward and crashed to the ground. Zel sighed and walked over to his fallen opponent.

"You should have listened, and this wouldn't have had to happen." He said softly as he put his boot directly on top of Caligo's head.

Caligo made a mumbling noise that turned into a full blown laughter. Zel looked down at him confused.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

Caligo stopped laughing just long enough to talk. "You should have paid more attention to the time you fool." He said.

Alex turned and saw that the tendrils of red had engulfed Allison once again, but Caligo's shadow barrier had kept in the sound of her screams. The moon was directly above them and Alex saw as Allison's soul was pulled out of her body. Caligo dropped the barrier and continued to laugh. Alex ran for his sword and slashed the chains in a few quick strikes catching Allison before she could hit the ground.

"No, goddamn it no!" he yelled. "Allison, don't you quit on me." He tapped her cheeks with the back of his hand as she lay lifeless in his lap. "Allison!"

Caligo slowly got to his feet and stood there as the red tendrils slid into his body. Alex slowly set Allison back on the ground. There were no tears, nothing would be able to show the loss he had just suffered. He only had one thing on his mind now: revenge. He stood to his feet and picked up his sword off the ground, the white light flickering around him as his energy exploded out of him at the fury of losing Allison. Bunni slowly walked over to him and stood next to him. She had no words to say. Jack slowly made his way over to them and stood next to him as well. Caligo stood in the center of the tower room as the darkness contorted his body.

His body had been replaced by a large hulking shadow monster and tendrils of darkness stuck out of his back and flicked around seemingly of their own free will. In comparison his new power was enough to equal all three of theirs. Alex clenched his fists around the sword and launched himself forward.

All three moved forward and started to attack simultaneously. Jack threw out Hellfire's with both hands as Bunni bombarded the shadow monster Caligo with as much energy as she still had left. The tendrils flew out blocking all of the attacks before they could manage to do any damage. Alex charged forward slicing the tendrils out of his way as they tried to wrap him up or run him through. Caligo kept backing up making it harder and harder for the fighters to reach him. Then the tendrils went out on the offensive. Jack and Bunni were knocked aside as Alex kept charging forward. He was a man possessed by the sole thought of revenge.

The energy around him exploded and he appeared behind Caligo with the blink of an eye. His sword flew in all directions, with each stroke finding a piece of the monster. With one last resounding slash he split Caligo in half and jumped back as the pieces all fell to the floor.

Alex sat there panting as Bunni and Jack got back to their feet. Alex dropped his sword and started to walk over to Allison's body, but out of the pieces of darkness three separate tendrils shot out and caught all of them around their necks. They were hoisted into the air as Caligo slowly reformed from the darkness.

"Did you really think that you could stop me?" he asked, his voice much deeper with the power running through him. "I've become the strongest living thing in existence. Stronger even than _her_." He snarled out the last part. "But never you worry about that, you won't live to find out." He was about to twist the tendrils tighter and snap their necks, when suddenly he stopped.

His arm twitched and the tendrils disappeared into dust. Alex looked at him confused, then he saw the light emitting from behind him.

Allison was now standing with her arm outstretched towards Caligo. "I think you've played with my soul enough now thank you." She said. Except it wasn't her voice, it was one filled with an ancient power that even the darkness would run from.

Caligo tried to struggle, but he couldn't move. "No, impossible!" he cried out in fear, "I took your soul, you should be dead!"

The non-Allison tilted her head. "That would be true usually, but I'm a special case. Now if you'll excuse me…"

Caligo's body started to bubble and pop and his body contorted in ways that shouldn't have been possible. Finally he let out a cry of agony and exploded, the darkness launching from him like a tar. A small wave of red swam through the air slowly condensing into a ball and floating over to the non-Allison.

"Allison, is that you?" Alex asked half choked.

The non-Allison shook her head. "Yes and no. It's too complicated to try and explain, if I stay here too much longer Allison may never be able to inhabit her body again, so I must leave you now."

The red ball swam back into Allison's body and she collapsed to the ground. Alex quickly rushed over and slid to catch her before she hit the ground. He pushed her hair out of her face and stroked her face. She coughed and slowly opened her eyes.

"Alex?" she asked, "Is it really you?"

He nodded smiling. The fight was finally over, and the shadow had been lifted from the land.


	14. In Nightmare's Wake

Halloween Town had seen better days, but the oppressive air that had permeated everything had vanished. The citizens ran back and forth rebuilding their town from the ground up. Vampires and ghosts hammered in new boards on top of roofs, large tree monsters and assorted other ghouls ferried supplies back and forth between the ruined houses and once again there was a feeling of mirth. Jack shuffled through the broken boards of his own home as the boys helped carry out broken panels and assorted junk that filled the floor. Sally and young Kally searched through the rubble and let out laughs as they found family heirlooms, photos, and a few of Kally's dolls that had survived. All around the entire town seemed to be alive again and thriving with the life that had once filled it.

The entire town seemed thrilled to be home and moved back and forth with purpose, all except for 3 figures. Allison, Alex, and Bunni stood near the town wall watching the commotion from a distance.

"Well, it looks like things will be just fine here." Bunni said, "I guess I don't have much of a reason to stay. If the people find me here they might try and burn me at the stake." She chuckled to herself grimly at the prospect.

"You know you don't have to go," Zel said without looking at her, he was still too busy watching the town rebuild, "I can tell them exactly what happened. They'll have no choice but to believe me."

Bunni laughed. "Yeah, nice try but I think I'll pass." She said turning away, "Besides, the kids are probably worried sick. Either that or they burned the tower to the ground. Either way I can't leave them alone."

She turned and started to walk off when a hand fell on her shoulder. She turned and saw that it was Allison that had stopped her.

"Listen, I never got a chance to thank you." She said, "You could have easily just left me and saved your own skin, but instead you risked your life to save mind. Thank you."

She held out her hands towards Bunni who looked at it a second before shaking it. "No, thank you. If you hadn't done that… whatever it was you did we all would have died."

Allison nodded and took her hand back from Bunni.

Bunni started walking away, but turned back around. "Oh by the way," she smiled, "I still don't like you."

Allison smiled back. "Well then the feeling is mutual Ms. Bunni." She said.

Bunni nodded and turned around and started walking. "So, we're not friend then?" she called over her shoulder as she walked away.

Allison nodded. "Not on your life." She said chuckling.

Bunni laughed a little too. "Well good, see ya later my not-friend Allison."

With that Bunni vanished into the trees of the forest and was lost from sight.

Alex chuckled. "Well, I'd say that went pretty well." He said.

Allison shrugged. "Maybe, she's all right you know."

Alex nodded looking back towards the forest. "Yeah, despite the act she puts on she's a nice girl. You just have to get used to her, that's all."

Alex sighed and looked up at the sky; the sun was slowly starting to set. It had taken them almost all day to get things up and running again in town.

"It's getting late, we should get moving." He said.

"Wait, I want to tell everyone goodbye first." She said.

Alex nodded. "By all means, but make it fast we need to get going if we're going to catch that door."

Allison nodded and quickly trotted off to give her goodbyes.

. . .

Jack and the family stood watching. Allison smiled and scratched the back of her head as they all gave her their goodbyes.

Jack stepped forward and offered his hand. "It truly was an honor to meet you Ms. Allison." He said.

Allison smiled and shook his boney hand. "The pleasure was all mine Mr. Skellington." She said.

She was about to turn to leave when a shrill little bark split the evening air. Allison turned to see the small wolf cub sitting on his haunches. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth and his tail was wagging furiously, but his head was titled slightly to the side as if he was confused.

Allison quickly trotted over and ruffled his ears. "What's gonna happen to him?" she asked looking back at Jack.

He stepped forward and picked up the cub gently. "Who Kiba? We'll take care of him, I promise. You have my word as a Skellington that he'll be properly looked after." He walked back over to his family and set Kiba on the ground. He instantly trotted over on its stubby legs to Kally who was sitting on the ground. He hopped into her lap and started wagging his tail furiously.

Allison couldn't help but laugh. The whole scene looked so nice that it made her feel warm inside. Suddenly she was sad to be leaving this all behind. To leave behind Halloween Town and the Skellingtons. It was Alex who finally pulled her away.

"We need to get going, we're going to lose the moonlight if we stay too long." He said.

Allison nodded and waved to the family as they walked away.

. . .

The clearing finally came into view and as Doctor Finkelstein had said there was the tree. It looked much like the others, except it's door was plain with no ornaments to be seen.

Allison sighed and walked over to it. She put her hand against the wood and looked back at Alex.

"Are you ready to go?" she asked.

Alex looked away from her as she asked the question.

"What's wrong?" she asked stepping towards him.

He closed his eyes and looked down at the ground. "I- I can't come with you Allison." He said softly.

Allison felt her heart drop and tears lingered behind her eyes. "W-What do you mean you're not coming with me?" she asked.

Alex put his hands on her shoulders. "As much as I want to I can't. That isn't my world anymore." He said.

Allison shook her head. "You can still come back though, we can still be together."

Alex swallowed hard. "Allison, there I'm still dead. Who knows what will happen to me if I go back. Maybe I'll come back, maybe I'll wake up in a rotted body, maybe I'll just disappear for good. I don't know."

Allison couldn't argue with that. He had a point. "Then let me stay here with you, Caligo is gone. I'll be safe now."

Alex shook his head. "No, you're still just as dangerous. There could still be other things out there stronger than Caligo that might come after you. You can't stay. You'll be safe in your world, nothing can touch you there. You have to think about what's best for everyone."

"I don't care what's best for everyone!" She screamed the tears flowing down from her face freely. "I had to sit and watch you die once and now I have to lose you again, Do you have any idea how hard this is for me?!"

Alex took a step back. "Actually I do." He said softly.

Allison stopped and looked at him.

"I could feel it you know, dying." He said, "It didn't hurt but I knew I was going. The whole time I knew I was going to be leaving you and the whole time I was screaming to every God known to man to let me stay with you. I begged, I swore, I screamed. But nothing heard me. I was pulled away from you."

Allison's knees went weak and she fell to the ground. Alex walked over and knelt down next to her.

"Listen, I just want to know that you'll be safe. Alex is always going to love you, but I can't be Alex. Not here, not now. We both have to move one for the good of everything. Do you understand?" he said softly.

Allison nodded. "Yeah." She said weakly.

He gently ran his hand against her cheek. "Hey, don't have such a long face. Maybe we can't be together now, but who knows. After what I've been through who's to say there aren't other worlds than these? Maybe we can still be together one day."

She nodded slowly getting to her feet.

"We both still have a life to live though," he said, "Yours is there and mine is here. I want you to move on and enjoy your life. And don't forget I will always love you."

"I love you too." She said softly.

With that she let go of him and walked towards the door. She took one last look back. The man she had been in love with was slowly fading away, fading into the other man that she had fallen in love with. Alex was becoming Zel again. He was changing from the happy go lucky boy she had known in one life, to the hardened veteran of the Halloween Town defense force that had stolen her heart.

She gave him one last smile before turning and opening the door and falling into the blackness.

. . .

Allison's head was swimming and she felt dizzy. She was looking up at the bright blue sky as a light breeze lapped over her. She slowly sat up and looked around. She was back in the forest, her forest. The trees that held the doors were gone. Instead she was sitting in a empty clearing with nothing but the fall breeze. She slowly stood up and reached for her neck. Alex's dogtags were still there.

_Was it real_? She asked herself.

Then she shook her head and laughed. "Of course it was real you idiot." She said to herself. She was suddenly filled with hope, hope for her life and for Alex's. Despite what she had been feeling when she stepped through that door she knew she could handle anything now. She was a stronger person than she used to be.

She smiled and hurried off towards her house. She had no idea how long she had been gone. When she reached the house everything seemed the same. She walked towards the back door and checked it. It was still locked. "I can't have been gone very long." She murmured to herself.

"No, you haven't been gone very long at all." A voice said from behind her. She turned and saw a boy standing behind her. His face was shrouded in the hood of a dark jacket and he leaned against the tree tossing something from one hand to the next.

"Who are you?" Allison asked.

"Oh come now, I know we didn't get very well acquainted the first time around, but I would think you'd be a little more observant." He said.

Allison looked closer and saw that the boy was tossing a pair of dice. "You!" she said.

The boy tossed the dice in the air and clapped. "And finally she gets it!" he exclaimed.

"How are you here?" she asked.

The boy upturned one of his hands and the dice dropped down into the palm of his hand. "Call it even or odd." He said.

Allison rolled her eyes. "Odd." She blurted out.

The boy lowered his hand. "Well, well" he said, "Lucky 7."

He slid the dice into his jacket pocket and stepped forward. "Let's just say that I happen to have a certain condition that allows me to travel back and forth between the worlds at my leisure."

Allison nodded. "Okay, so why are you here?" she asked.

"Oh you and you're bloody questions!" he exclaimed, "Fine. I'm here to observe you. You showed some promise against Caligo, I'm merely wondering if you could be the one I'm looking for. Because you're not done here my darling."

"Wait what do you mean I'm not done?" she asked.

The boy groaned. "No, I'm done. I've answered my fair share of questions today. All I'm going to say is that the Oracle is never wrong." He said.

"How do you know about the Oracle?" Allison asked.

The boy turned around and shot up his hand over his shoulder in a wave. "Goodbye!" he called.

Allison watched him walk away. He had raised more questions than he had answers, but he had made one thing very clear to Allison here and now:

She hadn't seen the last of Halloween Town.


	15. Update

Sorry for the long time away guys, I've been getting wrapped up in personal stuff and I've been trying to work on creating my own original stories, so I haven't had a lot of time to work on the sequel to Welcome to Nightmare like I hinted at, but I promise you that once everything gets sorted out that I will return to it and work diligently on it to try and produce for you guys the best sequel that I can. I hope you guys can forgive my absence and haven't taken your fanbase elsewhere. I enjoy hearing from you guys and getting any feedback that I can get so please leave a review or message me and let me know what you think. If you guys have ideas for the sequel that you want to pitch me or have some things that you want to see changed please let me know, most likely I'll be more than happy to listen. I hope to be back to writing this soon so if you guys will bear with me for a little longer I promise I will get something up and running.

Many thanks guys,

Alucard1563


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